‘His Dark Materials’ Writer Jack Thorne Says UK Drama Funding Crisis Is “A Real Problem”
deadline.comJack Thorne, the feted British writer behind His Dark Materials and the upcoming Netflix series Toxic Town, has bemoaned the UK scripted funding crisis.
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live’s Must Watch show, Thorne said there is a “real problem” financing British stories — and it’s beginning to bite in the development room. “The type of shows that I love, not necessarily that I’ve written, are under threat and new writers that want to write this sort of thing are being discouraged from it by the state of the market,” he said.
As Deadline detailed in a long read on the crisis earlier this month, a confluence of issues is preventing local stories from getting the funding required to go into production.
As many as 15 greenlit shows are stuck in limbo. U.S. studios and streamers have pulled back on co-productions with UK broadcasters; distributors are stumping up lower advances; funding cuts and ad market woes have squeezed the BBC and ITV’s income; and all the while, the drumbeat of chronic inflation continues to keep the cost of production prohibitively high.
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