Carnival exec joins Company Pictures

Wolf Hall prodco Company Pictures has appointed an executive producer from Carnival Films as its new head of drama, and bolstered its development team with the addition of BBC and Pulse Films execs.

Richard Fell

Richard Fell has been named head of drama at the All3Media-backed UK prodco. At Carnival, he was executive producer on Sky’s Stan Lee’s Lucky Man and Jamestown.

He also has credits on the movie Liberty and shows such as Frankenstein’s Wedding, A Short Stay in Switzerland and Copenhagen, starring Daniel Craig.

Fell was previously MD at Fresh Pictures and has also had stints at Tiger Aspect Drama and the BBC, spending over a decade at the latter, where he was responsible for creating and curating the drama strategy for BBC4.

Elsewhere, Lucy Raffety has joined as director of development, having spent two years as series producer on medical drama Casualty for the BBC in the UK.

Prior to that she has been a producer, story producer and script editor on dramas such as The Musketeers, Waterloo Road, The Bill and Bad Girls.

Finally, Josephine Davies becomes development producer and joins from Pulse Films, where she was was head of development from 2016 to 2019. She’s also worked at Wildgaze Films and was involved in developing Academy Award-nominated film Brooklyn and BBC documentary A Nazi Legacy.

Company Pictures CEO Michele Buck, who took up the role in 2015, said the addition of “three such brilliant creatives shows the true ambition we have for the business.”

Fell added: “Michele is an absolute legend, and with such a talented development team we are primed and ready to grow Company Pictures into a powerhouse of ambitious British TV drama.”

Company Pictures was founded in 1998 and has been behind shows including BBC quartet Wolf Hall, The Lakes, The Village and Inspector George Gently. It also produced Shameless for Channel 4 and Wild at Heart for ITV, while its slate at present includes Agatha Raisin for Acorn TV and a remake of UK detective drama Van Der Valk.