Zai Bennett: Last News

BBC Studios is prepared to plough resource into its scripted and entertainment offerings as CEO Tom Fussell stresses the group’s “long-term mandate” amid global market contraction.

Naman Ramachandran BBC Studios Productions revealed Friday that chief operating officer Martha Brass will depart the company this summer to concentrate on her expanding portfolio of non-executive directorships and personal pursuits. Brass, who joined the production powerhouse in September 2021, played a pivotal role during a transformative period that saw BBC Studios consolidate its content creation capabilities.

The BBC’s unscripted supremo Kate Phillips will take on content boss Charlotte Moore’s role at least in the interim.

Sky Content MD Zai Bennett is heading to BBC Studios.

K.J. Yossman Sky content boss Zai Bennett has jumped ship to BBC Studios Productions, where he has been appointed CEO and chief creative officer. Bennett’s remit will span the company’s U.K.

EXCLUSIVE: The race to replace Ralph Lee at the helm of BBC Studios Productions is underway, with the studio signaling its ambition by approaching some of the UK’s top unscripted executives.

Naman Ramachandran Two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer (“Dune,” “The Lion King”) and Kara Talve (“Prehistoric Planet”) will compose the score for Sky and Peacock series “The Tattooist of Auschwitz.” Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Heather Morris, the limited series is inspired by the true-life story of Lale and Gita Sokolov. It follows Lale (Jonah Hauer-King), who arrived at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, where he was made one of the tattooists charged to ink identification numbers onto fellow prisoners’ arms. He meets Gita (Anna Próchniak) when tattooing her prisoner number, and they experience love at first sight.

Sky is seeking inspiration from Happy Valley for its next hit show as programs boss Zai Bennett says the pay-TV giant is taking a ‘less is more’ approach to original content.

Sky and Peacock are forging a TV adaptation of Frederick Forsyth’s The Day of the Jackal with Top Boy showrunner Ronan Bennett attached.

House Of The Dragon has shared a teaser for season one episode five – take a look below.The Game of Thrones spinoff series is currently airing weekly on HBO Max, with the forthcoming episode airing on September 18.Paddy Considine’s Viserys Targaryen can be heard saying “I wish to propose a marriage to my daughter and heir” in the start of the teaser.“I hope to herald in a second age of dragons, ” before being warned that “knives will come out” and another person saying that “the king will die”.Take a look at the teaser here:House Of The Dragon recently became Sky’s biggest US drama launch and the most watched Sky Atlantic premiere ever in the UK.After the show’s premiere broke records at HBO, attracting almost 10million viewers, the Game Of Thrones prequel smashed viewing records in the UK.According to Sky (via Deadline), the first episode has attracted more than four million viewers, beating the launch of Game Of Thrones in 2011.Zai Bennett, head of content at Sky, said: “Momentum around House Of The Dragon just continues to build, as more and more people spread the word about its ever-current narrative of political power play married with visuals of epic scale and imagination.“And thanks to Sky making the first episode freely available to watch via YouTube, more people than ever before will be able to sample the world-class world of Westeros.”

House Of The Dragon has become Sky’s biggest US drama launch and the most watched Sky Atlantic premiere ever.After the show’s premiere broke records at HBO, attracting almost 10million viewers, the Game Of Thrones prequel has smashed viewing records in the UK.According to Sky (via Deadline), the first episode has attracted more than four million viewers, beating the launch of Game Of Thrones in 2011.Zai Bennett, head of content at Sky, said: “Momentum around House Of The Dragon just continues to build, as more and more people spread the word about its ever-current narrative of political power play married with visuals of epic scale and imagination.“And thanks to Sky making the first episode freely available to watch via YouTube, more people than ever before will be able to sample the world-class world of Westeros.”Adapted from George R.R. Martin’s novel Fire & Blood, House Of The Dragon is set 200 years before events in Game Of Thrones.

Sky has unveiled seven original comedy shorts at the Edinburgh Television Festival written by and starring the likes of Rosie Jones, Desiree Burch and Jordan Stephens, while ordering Painting Birds with Jim and Nancy Moir (working title) and greenlighting a fifth season of Brassic.

Naman Ramachandran ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ has proved to be a terrific return to Westeros for Sky Atlantic, the Sky group’s U.K. and Ireland channel focused on U.S. shows. The first episode of the show premiered Aug. 22 on Sky Atlantic and some 1.39 million people in total watched it, according to numbers seen by Variety. Of these, almost one million (991,000) either stayed up to watch at 2 am or downloaded via on demand through the day or caught up on recordings. More than 394,000 people watched the prime time linear broadcast. Based on overnights alone, this is the biggest drama debut ever on Sky Atlantic, overtaking the launch of “Game of Thrones,” and the biggest U.S. drama launch ever on Sky.

K.J. Yossman Lily Allen (“How to Build a Girl”) and Freema Agyeman (“Doctor Who”) are set to star in Sky Original comedy “Dreamland.”“Dreamland” is based on Sharon Horgan’s BAFTA-winning short of the same name about “secrets, lies, loves and aspirations within a family of four sisters.”“Set in the sun-drenched British seaside town of Margate, it is a dark comedic exploration of multi-generational female relationships, and their (somewhat dysfunctional) family dynamics,” reads the logline.Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Gabby Best, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Frances Barber and Sheila Reid round out the cast.

British pop icon Lily Allen is making her TV debut, joining Doctor Who star Freema Agyeman in Sky comedy Dreamland from Sharon Horgan’s Merman.

Sky has put a darkly comic drama about a foul-mouthed supermarket worker in Belfast into production. Roisin Gallagher (The Fall, The Dry) and Johnny Flynn (Beast, Emma) take the leading roles in The Lovers, which is from Doctor Foster and Pure producer Drama Republic.

EXCLUSIVE: Hulu’s WeWork director Jed Rothstein is forging landmark Sky documentary Once Upon a Time in Londongrad, exploring 14 mysterious deaths in the UK with alleged connections to Russia over two decades.

Tara Conlan An interview with John Lennon’s murderer and the UK’s first kidnapping case are being explored in new films unveiled by Sky for its recently-launched Sky Documentaries channel.The programs were unveiled as Sky UK and Ireland managing director of content Zai Bennett said the Comcast-owned broadcaster is focusing on building its brands by getting in early with creators to help it in the “arms race” of content, particularly in drama.Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Sky’s director of factual Poppy Dixon said Let Me Take You Down is an investigation into the killing of Lennon in 1980 by Mark David Chapman, which she hopes will air at the end of this year to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Lennon’s death.