Former Discovery execs launch indie

Mark Procter and Steve Jones, who previously worked together at US factual giant Discovery, have launched a new UK indie production outfit.

Mark Procter

Big Little Fish will focus on producing returnable unscripted series for the international marketplace and already has history and true crime projects on its development slate.

The London-based firm will also specialise in the development and production of factual entertainment formats, popular factual features and documentary series.

Procter was formerly an executive producer and commissioning editor at Discovery Networks from 2010 to 2017, where he brokered deals for international productions of formats including Say Yes to the Dress, The Great Bake Off, Don’t Tell the Bride and Undressed and developed original series for TLC such as Separated at Birth and Extreme Beauty Disasters.

Jones was most recently executive producer of factual entertainment at Discovery Networks, where he worked across a slate of popular factual and factual entertainment series for TLC, Investigation Discovery and Quest Red including Killing Michael Jackson, My Extraordinary Pregnancy and Faking It: Tears of a Crime.

Steve Jones

He was previously a commissioning editor at LIVINGtv and Sky1 before spending six years in a senior role at Australian prodco CJZ.

Big Little Fish is currently in early stage discussions with potential investors as it looks to scale the business and launch further titles on the development slate ahead of Realscreen in January.

The company has launched with a portfolio of ideas including Hitler’s Women: The Forgotten Nazis (6×60’) and has acquired factual TV rights to produce a 3×60’ brand-new true-crime documentary miniseries Breaking Dad (working title).

Hitler’s Women: The Forgotten Nazis will utilise untapped archive and a new crop of historians and experts including James Wyllie, author of recently published Nazi Wives to analyse the women behind the infamous men at the head of the Third Reich.

Breaking Dad recounts the true story of Richard Lubbock, who went from mild-mannered family man to drug kingpin during the early noughties. Dubbed ‘the UK’s Walter White’, police claimed he was Britain’s biggest ever crystal meth dealer at the time of his arrest in 2009.

The company is currently in discussions with networks and distributors on the projects.