C5 sets Deadline as scripted slate grows

All Creatures Great & Small was C5’s biggest launch since 2016

ViacomCBS-owned UK terrestrial Channel 5 has added to its burgeoning scripted slate with two drama commissions from new UK prodco Clapperboard.

Deadline (4×60’), written and directed by Gareth Tunley (The Ghoul, Cold Call), is a noir thriller in which a journalist falls in love with the femme fatale he is supposed to be profiling dispassionately for his newspaper.

Mike Benson

Mike Benson (Cold Call) will serve as exec producer alongside Herbert Kloiber with Rebecca Davies (Cold Call) producing. The series will be produced in association with Night Train Media and distributed by Abacus Media Rights.

The second series is Teacher (4×60’), created by Barunka O’Shaughnessy (Motherland, Alabama, Hitmen) and Benson. The psychological thriller follows Jenna, a state school teacher, whose life unravels after she is accused of a drunken sexual encounter with one of her pupils.

The announcement follows a string of drama successes on Channel 5 including The Deceived and All Creatures Great & Small, its biggest programme launch since 2016. Anne Boleyn, Dalgliesh and Intruder were all recently announced for 2021 as part of the channel’s continued expansion into original drama.

iZen, the producer-led content group comprising a network of prodcos in Spain, the Middle East and the UK, announced the launch of new British outfit Clapperboard in October.

The scripted content production company is overseen by Mike Benson, MD of UK prodco Chalkboard, in which iZen has a stake, and director of iZen’s UK strategy.