Dan Grabiner: Last News

The identity of Dan Grabiner’s new production house wasn’t secret for long. The outgoing Amazon UK exec is teaming with British factual veteran Nicola Hill to launch Orchard Studios.

K.J. Yossman Orchard Studios, the new production company founded by former Amazon Studios U.K. exec Dan Grabiner, has hired a trio of heavyweight execs to round out its new senior creative team.

Harry: The Interview EP Nat Lippiett and BBC factual entertainment commissioner Clare Mottershead have joined Orchard Studios, the nascent UK unscripted indie run by former Amazon UK programs chief Dan Grabiner and ex-The Garden boss Nicola Hill.

EXCLUSIVE: Don’t bet the farm on Amazon parting ways with Jeremy Clarkson.

Another senior Amazon Studios UK executive is exiting for the indie production sector.

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon’s UK content arm, which is behind series such as Clarkson’s Farm and The Rig, is saying goodbye to its boss.

Clarkson’s Farm is one of Amazon Prime’s biggest homegrown hits and by far its most popular UK-made show, but it could come to an end after the next series, with platform bosses revealing they were “shocked and disappointed” by the presenter’s comments about Meghan Markle.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International Amazon has said its investments have contributed £4.8 billion ($6.1 billion) of gross value — and 16,000 jobs — to the U.K. economy since 2010. This covers the gamut of the online retail giant’s various subsidiaries, including Kindle Direct Publishing, Amazon Publishing, Prime Video, Audible, Amazon Fashion, Amazon Music and Amazon Games, among others. Overall, the company — which revealed the figures on Wednesday — has invested more than £4.2 billion in U.K. creative industries since 2010, and has doubled its investment since 2018. As Prime Video continues to embed in the U.K. creative sector, it can also count the British Film Institute as its next stop. A number of the streamer’s U.K.-shot originals, including “Good Omens” and “Clarkson’s Farm,” will be digitally preserved in the BFI National Archive as part of a new partnership. The Prime Video deal comes almost a year after Netflix reached a similar agreement to induct some of its own originals into the celebrated archive. That deal was struck in September, Variety understands.

Scots drama The Rig is returning for a second series, it has been confirmed.

Initial has hired Fulwell 73’s Director of Development Caroline Roseman, as the Banijay indie gears up to return Big Brother to British screens. 

Peter Capaldi is set to return for two more seasons of the Amazon Prime thriller The Devils House alongside Jessica Raine.

EXCLUSIVE: Initial Co-Managing Director Cat Lynch is joining Amazon Studios in the UK, Deadline can reveal.

K.J. Yossman “Clarkson’s Farm,” the break-out British Amazon Prime Video hit starring former “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson attempting to run a farm in the Cotswolds, has just wrapped and is already in the edit suite, confirmed Amazon Studios’ U.K. head of originals Dan Grabiner. “Because it’s farming and it’s authentic it’s so linked to the seasons and the farming year and the weather and things like that,” Grabiner said at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Wednesday morning. “Season 2 has just about wrapped filming. It looks amazing, I think that’s fair to say.” Grabiner also promised fans more of the show’s break-out stars Kaleb Cooper, a farming contractor, and experienced farmer Gerald Cooper, who tries to guide Clarkson in his thick West Country accent.

K.J. Yossman Georgia Brown, head of European originals at Amazon Studios in the U.K., has said that even while the cost of living crisis bites and other streamers, such as HBO Max, have halted their local originals, Amazon Prime Video has no intention of cutting back. “We’ve always had a very different strategy,” Brown said during a panel at the Edinburgh TV Festival, before saying she abides by head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke’s mantra of offering a “really curated” slate. Brown emphasized her commitment to local productions, saying: “It was really critical to us that we have these local productions on the ground. Our strategy has always been ‘local for local.’”

EXCLUSIVE: Amazon Studios Europe Boss Georgia Brown has said “broadcasters and streamers were not investing enough in the non-scripted space” when she joined five years ago, as the SVoD prepares to unveil a suite of true crime docs with a variety of different tones.

A competition series based on the iconic British secret agent has been greenlighted at Prime Video, Deadline has confirmed.

A competition series based on the iconic British secret agent is in the works at Prime Video, Deadline has confirmed.

Manori Ravindran International EditorTransatlantic production powerhouse Sister has hired Amazon Studios scripted executive Lydia Hampson as executive producer. The company has also struck a first-look deal with Hampson  and Amazon Studios U.K.Hampson most recently served as the head of U.K.

Amazon Prime Video has pledged £10M ($13.3M) on UK training initiatives over the next three years to help with the local skills pipeline.

K.J. Yossman Amazon Prime Video has launched a £10 million ($13 million) industry training initiative in the U.K.Titled Prime Video Pathway, the initiative has been built into Prime’s U.K. original productions such as “The Devil’s Hour,” “The Rig” and “Mammals” with the aim of making the creative industries more accessible.

Amazon Prime Video has signed a multimillion pound deal with Pinewood’s Shepperton Studios to take facilities for the next decade, and will therefore be producing projects next door to Netflix.