Red Production Company is a UK prodco with a French backer and global ambitions. So what does its founder make of Netflix, the BBC and serialisation? Richard Middleton reports.

UK culture secretary John Whittingdale MP might be intrigued to take a look at Red Production Company as he works out just what to do with the BBC.

At first glance Nicola Shindler’s Manchester company is a UK-focused producer that has received its fair share of commissions from the country’s public broadcaster. Clocking Off, New Street Law, Single Father and Last Tango in Halifax – along with more recent entrants Ordinary Lies and Bafta-winning Happy Valley – are all BBC series, sitting alongside the likes of ITV’s crime thriller Prey and Channel 4’s innovative gay drama Cucumber.

Certainly, if you cut the Red Production Company stick of rock, Made in Britain would appear. And that’s increasingly what foreign buyers are looking for as they peruse the hits of the global drama industry, according to Shindler.

“People around the world are looking to UK drama and UK writers for quality right now,” she says. “International drama is being redefined and it doesn’t have to be set in multiple countries, it just has to have a universal theme and appeal.”

Such belief in the strength of the UK drama industry is manifested in its own exports – something the StudioCanal-owned company is keen to build on. Prey has been picked up in Germany, Cucumber went to Sweden’s SVT and Happy Valley found buyers in Australia and France, while Last Tango airs around the world, including in the US.

“The fact we’re UK-based is to our advantage,” Shindler says. Happy Valley’s international success, she says, lies in the characters’ “universal” appeal and Britain’s drama traditions are attracting global attention.

“It’s not just about delivering a good 42 minutes or one hour but providing complex, intricate storytelling that doesn’t have to be rushed – and that is what’s in vogue at the moment.”

Given that, it might seem an unusual time to be discussing the potential of a smaller BBC, as Whittingdale begins his review of the corporation’s services in the run-up to charter renewal.

There’s little question where Shindler’s loyalties lie when she says further cuts to the BBC’s budgets would see her company “lose out, like every other production company in the UK. There would be less money to make shows and I don’t believe that money would go to others or that the slack would be taken up by other [commercial] channels. Everyone will lose out, including – most of all – the audience.”

Shindler also rubbishes the accusation that the BBC should be reined in when it comes to entertainment shows such as Bake Off and Strictly Come Dancing, to create opportunities for its commercial competitors.

“I don’t think anyone else would have made those programmes; it’s a stupid argument,” she says, adding that she expects production budgets to be cut as a result of the BBC’s agreement with the government to cover the cost of providing free TV licences to over-75s, which is estimated to cost around £650m.

So if she finds herself taking a seat next to Whittingdale, what would she say? “Just stop having a political angle on the BBC. It shouldn’t be a political decision – it’s all being done out of politics, not on what the audience needs,” she says.

Red’s own audience is set to grow if plans to break more ground on the global stage come to fruition. Shindler is looking to develop bigger-budget shows and she admits that “like everyone else” she’s in coproduction discussions to finance new series, while also eyeing up online opportunities.

She says the impact of Netflix, with which she has projects in the very early stages of development, has forced broadcasters to offer more creative freedom and quicker decisions. It’s also helped to power the rise of serialised drama, but she believes “story of the week” shows will return. “People will get bored of having to watch eight episodes of something, and then they’ll love being able to just dip into a story and dip out again,” she says.

In the meantime, new seasons of Prey, Happy Valley and Last Tango are in the works. There’s also Lenny Henry’s semi-autobiographical drama Danny & the Human Zoo for the BBC, as well as mystery series The Five for Sky, along with those global expansion plans.

Red might now have a French parent but this Manchester-born outfit, which has benefitted from BBC orders, is increasingly focused on the international market. It is also providing a storyline that should give Whittingdale and Co pause for thought as they plot a course for the BBC and its viewers.