Parade’s End marches into Australia

MIPCOM NEWS: Australia’s Nine Network has picked up broadcast rights to new period drama coproduction Parade’s End in a deal with BBC Worldwide Australia.

Parade’s End (5×60’/6×44’/3×90′), adapted for TV by playwright Sir Tom Stoppard from the novel by Ford Madox Ford, involves a love triangle set against the backdrop of the final years of the Edwardian era and the First World War. It is also Stoppard’s first television work in 20 years.

Kaye Warren, BBCWW Australia’s head of TV sales, called the drama’s epic tale of love and war “the stuff that memorable television drama events are made of.”

The drama also comes packed with a high-profile cast that includes Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock), Rebecca Hall (Vicky Christina Barcelona), Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy), as well as Australian actress Adelaide Clemens (Silent Hill: Revelation 3D) and Rupert Everett (Stardust).

The drama, produced by David Parfitt and Selwyn Roberts, and exec-produced by Michele Buck, Damien Timmer and Stoppard, is a Mammoth Screen production for the BBC, in association with HBO Miniseries and Trademark Films, Lookout Point and BBCW.

The production also received backing from BNP Paribas Fortis Film Fund and Anchorage Entertainment, and benefitted from the Belgian federal government’s Tax Shelter scheme.