ABC Oz, HBO Europe pick up Roadkill

MIPCOM: Australian pubcaster ABC and HBO in Europe have pre-bought BBC and PBS drama Roadkill, starring Hugh Lawrie and Helen McCrory.

Hugh Lawrie in Roadkill

The political thriller, produced by The Forge, is set to launch as part of Mipcom Online+’s screenings programme this week.

Distributor All3Media International has secured pre-sales for the drama, which was originally commissioned by BBC1 and PBS’s Masterpiece strand.

HBO has picked it up in a pan-territory deal covering the CEE region, Nordics and Portugal. In Australia, ABC has acquired first-window TV rights with ABC Commercial taking home entertainment, while streamer Stan has taken second-window SVoD rights. KT Hitel has picked up the title in Korea.

Further pre-sales have been concluded with TVNZ (New Zealand), NPO (Netherlands), Magenta TV (Germany), Intervision (Greece and Cyprus), Kinopoisk (Russia and the CIS), Siminn hf (Iceland) and Telefónica (Spain), while and home entertainment rights have gone to Dazzler Media for the UK and Eire.

These deals add to All3Media International’s previously announced coproduction pact with PBS Masterpiece which will see Roadkill airing on WGBH in the US and PBS in Canada.

The four-part drama stars Laurie (House) as Peter Laurence, a self-made, forceful and charismatic politician whose public and private life seems to be falling apart, alongside McCrory (Peaky Blinders) as acerbic UK prime minister Dawn Ellison.

Produced by George Faber’s UK-based independent The Forge (National Treasure, Ackley Bridge, Collateral), Roadkill is written by David Hare (Collateral) and directed by Michael Keillor (Chimerica).