Chalkboard makes Cold Call for C5

Viacom-owned UK broadcaster Channel 5 has returned to commissioning original drama with a 4×60′ order for a psychological thriller.

Ben Frow

Cold Call is being produced by UK-based Chalkboard TV and will explore the aftermath of a fraudulent scam following a cold call to a single mother.

It was ordered by C5 commissioning executive Sebastian Cardwell and is being written by creative duo Karyn Dougan-Buckland and Mark Buckland.

The show will star Sally Lindsay (Mount Pleasant, Ordinary Lies) and follows the mother’s attempts to salvage her family’s future after a phone call that changes her life.

C5’s director of programmes Ben Frow said the commission “demonstrates our ambition to offer talented emerging indies the opportunity to deliver brilliant drama in primetime. Cold Call is not for the faint hearted and will have viewers hooked from beginning to end.”

Lindsay added: “I can’t wait to bring this very modern thriller alive; exploring how far a very normal woman will be stretched when she is horribly deceived and her entire life and family are destroyed.”

Cold Call will go into production later this year, and will air on Channel 5 in 2019.

Having been bought by Viacom in 2014, C5 has made few forays into original drama over the past five years, although it did launch procedural cop show Suspects in 2014.

C5, which was yesterday named Channel of the Year at the Edinburgh Television Festival, has also ordered documentary series Drug Wars (working title, 4×60’) from Vice Studios, which will look at drug use across the UK.

The show will feature stories and candid insights from users, as well as their families, and will examine a range of narcotics and the young people who are dependent on them.

Drug Wars is being executive produced by Yonni Usiskin for Vice Studios and follows the studios’ debut commission for C5, Britain’s Cocaine Epidemic.