‘Dope Girls’: Bad Wolf Adopts U.S.-Style Pilot Strategy On Upcoming BBC Series & Will Shop Ep 1 At London & LA Screenings

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Bad Wolf is adopting a U.S.-style pilot strategy on BBC drama Dope Girls by finishing episode one months before the rest so that it can be shopped at the London and LA TV Screenings.

Jane Tranter, who co-runs the Doctor Who and His Dark Materials producer, said this is the first time the Sony-backed indie has taken such an approach but it is being driven by the necessities of the current drama market.

Ordinarily, Bad Wolf would have the majority of a series in the can before taking to buyers but the first episode has effectively been “fast-tracked” so that buyers from the U.S.

and around the world can get a feel for it early on at the screenings. An extended sizzle will be shown during this week’s Sony London TV Screenings showcase event on Thursday at the Ham Yard Hotel and episode one should be complete by May’s LA Screenings. “This is something I’ve never done before,” Tranter told Deadline. “Normally we are editing for as long as we can to look to create tone across a series but what we are doing at the moment is much more American, which is creating a first episode that we know can hook an audience.” As one of the few high-end TV shows to have rolled cameras last year due to the writers strike and broader economic slowdown, Tranter described the Peaky Blinders-style series about inter-war Soho as a “rare jewel.” She acknowledged tricky economic headwinds have somewhat forced Bad Wolf’s hand in terms of taking the pilot approach and predicted the strategy will become “more commonplace” as the industry gets used to reduced commissioning and lower budgets. “The traditional co-pro model where a UK broadcaster would put in a license fee and you’d go out and get the rest [of the funding] from North America