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Tuesday’s Child adopts Curious Cat as it sets up formats label under Donkin

James Donkin and Karen Smith

UK indie Tuesday’s Child has launched a formats-focused label called Curious Cat with its former head of development, James Donkin.

The move marks Donkin’s return to the non-scripted specialist having previously worked there between 2017 and 2022, when he left to join Peter Fincham and Tim Hincks’ UK prodco Expectation as director of development.

Donkin has already started working on the joint venture with Karen Smith, CEO of Tuesday’s Child, with the aim of creating “attention-grabbing” unscripted formats in entertainment, reality, games, factual and comedy.

A seasoned entertainment specialist, Donkin has previously worked at Renegade Pictures as head of development and held senior development roles at Gogglebox Entertainment (now Primal Media) and Zodiak, working on new formats for its production companies across Europe.

Donkin has also worked in production as an exec/series producer on a variety of shows. He has been involved in developing hundreds of hours of shows including In With a Shout (ITV1/M6), The Hit List (BBC One), Extraordinary Escapes (Channel 4), Head-Hunters (BBC One), Guessable (Comedy Central), Killer Camp (ITV2/The CW) and Release the Hounds (ITV2/Fox).

With offices in London, Glasgow and Cardiff, Tuesday’s Child is the producer of shows such as Lego Masters, The Fortune Hotel, The Hit List and Extraordinary Escapes. It already houses and part-owns David Williams and Jamie Ormerod outfit, Interstellar TV.

Donkin said: “I’ve always believed that the best stories come from a place of curiosity and exploration and through Curious Cat we want to push the boundaries and tell those stories in a truly original way, with fresh new formats that captivate the UK and international market. Curious Cat is creatively adventurous, commercially ambitious, and hungry for the next big hit.”

Smith added: “[Donkin’s] creativity and energy are second to none and with the production backing of the Tuesday’s Child teams in London, Scotland and Wales, plus our strong international relationships, his formats will fly.”

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