Drive makes formats push with The Chop

L-R: The Chop hosts Rick Edwards, Lee Mack and William Hardie

UK-based production funding and distribution agency Drive has added Sky History competition series The Chop to its sales slate as part of a push into format rights exploitation.

The Chop (9×60’) follows 10 of the UK’s best carpenters as they compete for the title of Britain’s Top Woodworker, getting the chance to stage their own exhibition at London’s prestigious William Morris Gallery.

The contestants are tasked with creating items and artefacts to furnish an ever-expanding grand cabin in the woods, the construction of which will be overseen by master craftsman William Hardie.

The tasks revolve around a different historical theme each week, including Nelson’s cabin on the HMS Victory, a Victorian pub, a Gothic/Harry Potter-style bedroom, a Georgian gentleman’s study and a Mad Men-inspired 1960s lounge.

Joining Hardie as co-hosts are comedian Lee Mack and TV presenter Rick Edwards. The series is produced by Big Wheel Film & Television with Motion Content Group for Sky History and premieres on Thursday October 15.

Drive has also acquired forthcoming BBC2 series Pub Rescue with Tom Kerridge (3×60’), which sees the celebrity chef and pub owner lend his expertise to four pubs, from Cornwall to Scotland, that are under threat.

Five months into making the programme, the coronavirus crisis meant all pubs had to close, with the show consequently exploring the effects of lockdown on the businesses.

Pub Rescue is produced by Bone Soup Productions, the UK production company founded by Kerridge and Richard Bowron, for BBC2 in the UK.

Drive has also picked up Cash in the Spare Room (10×60’), a renovation series in which designer Sarah Moore and small spaces expert Max McMurdo aim to help people turn their unused and forgotten spaces at home into lucrative holiday lets. The show is produced by Friel Kean Films for HGTV.

Drive’s expansion into the formats space follows the appointment of formats specialist and former TwoFour Group executive Eniela Bella as senior sales exec earlier this month.