ITV orders Chadha drama

UK commercial broadcaster ITV has commissioned a drama from Bend It Like Beckham director Gurinda Chadha, as well as a comedy panel show.

Gurinda Chadha

Beecham House is a six-part series written by Chadha (Viceroy’s House, Bhaji On the Beach), Paul Mayeda Berges, Shahrukh Husain and Victor Levin that will be filmed in India this fall.

Set on the eve of the 19th century in Delhi, the drama follows the life of John Beecham, a former soldier who starts a new life in a mansion. Caroline Levy is series producer and FremantleMedia International is the global distributor.

Chadha is the writer, director and producer behind Bend It Like Beckham and the new series will be produced by her Bend It TV banner, in which FremantleMedia took a 25% stake a year ago.

ITV has also ordered The Imitation Game (7×45’), which has been commissioned by Saskia Schuster, commissioning editor for entertainment and comedy. It is coproduced by Big Talk Productions and Random Entertainment.

Executive producers are Kenton Allen, Matthew Justice and Saurabh Kakkar for Big Talk and Jon Naismith and Graeme Garden for Random. The show is series produced by Ruth Wallace and will shoot this month and be broadcast later in the year.

Hosted by Alexander Armstrong, the series sees two teams of celebrities go head-to-head in a number of fast-paced games and challenges where they must provide a variety of impressions.