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C21 DIGITAL SCREENINGS

Passion Distribution

Programming Profile

Passion pushes the envelope with its new slate of shows

23-02-2022

Tinopolis-owned Passion Distribution is unveiling a fresh ‘live’ take on true crime and a new format that enables faithful couples to explore having sex with other people in C21’s Digital Screenings this week.

 

Nick Tanner, director of sales and coproduction at London-based Passion Distribution, describes the forthcoming line-up of industry events and showcases as “a fantastic chance to re-engage with our international partners after such a long period of disruption.”

 

As life returns to some form of normality after two years of Covid-19, television’s physical event circuit is starting to ramp up once again with a host of distributors of various sizes getting together to grow the London Screenings alongside a virtual BBC Studios Showcase, while MipTV is back in Cannes in April for the first time since 2019.

 

Pope
Nick Tanner,
Passion Distribution

“We’re really excited about this period coming up; it feels like in-person events are back with a bang,” Tanner says. “There’s a fantastic opportunity with the forthcoming London Screenings week to give a glimpse of what we will be doing in the first part of this year, and we’ve got a really exciting offer this time around.”

 

In formats, Passion has often been a go-to place for perhaps slightly risky, outside-the-box ideas, and this year is no exception.

 

The first of two new shows being brought to market is Love in the Flesh, a dating show for the recently relaunched BBC Three, produced by Ten66. The show is based on the premise that most people are now beginning and conducting their relationships online, via apps, where meeting in real life is a big step that doesn’t always happen. Love in the Flesh follows people in online relationships and takes them on the first date of a lifetime, where they meet for the first time to see if they have a future together.

 

“We’re excited about this; it taps into a rich history of dating-in-paradise formats, but it really does something different. Unlike many dating shows, these people are already virtual couples, there’s something holding them together, and the show tries to take it to the next step. It’s not coming from a position of causing tension or stress,” Tanner says.

 

The second format on Passion’s slate, Open (working title), addresses modern relationships too but in a wholly different way. From Tinopolis-owned Firecracker Films for Channel 4, the social experiment digs into the premise that society is built on relationships where you have sex with one person at a time. The show invites couples who have thus far been faithful to a luxurious mansion to explore whether introducing swinging, threesomes or polyamorous arrangements may enhance their relationship.

 

Love in the Flesh
Love in the Flesh

“It’s a really provocative, noisy idea,” Tanner says. “It’s got universal themes but is also exploring something quite taboo… it’s going to be eye-popping. It’s very Firecracker. I love the disruptive nature of it. It’s a serious subject, it asks a serious question, but it approaches it in a playful way. Passion likes to do something different and we’re not afraid to sail close to the wind.”

 

Passion is a non-scripted content specialist with a particular focus on entertainment, documentary series and specials, and factual entertainment, and is preparing to launch new shows in all these genres.

 

Killing in Paradise
Killing in Paradise

An event special being brought to market is Killing in Paradise (working title), which provides new twists and takes on television’s buzzy true crime genre. The popularity of true crime on both linear and streaming platforms has led to market saturation, and often it’s not just access but also finding a story that hasn’t already been screened several times that is key. In this project, from producer Steve Anderson and his indie SPA Productions, both boxes are ticked because it is following a live case that is ongoing as we speak.

 

I Met My Murderer Online
I Met My Murderer Online

The doc follows the case of socialite Jasmine Hartin, who is accused of killing a high-ranking police officer in Belize – “the real Death in Paradise,” as Tanner puts it.

 

“Working in collaboration with Steve Anderson, we spotted this huge crime story of 2022 unfolding right now and yet nobody is telling the story,” Tanner says. “Together with SPA Media we’ve spotted a fantastic story, invested in its development, and attracted a substantial streaming partner that is actively involved and will broadcast the documentary in the UK. It’s an exciting new way of doing things, particularly with a live story.

 

Special Ops: Crime Squad UK
Special Ops: Crime Squad UK

“It’s different from traditional true crime in that it’s not a retrospective, it’s present tense. It gives a unique immediacy to the project. Steve and his team are just back from another two weeks of filming and the film is in the can. We’ve got access to the accused, the victim’s family, the police, witnesses – everything we need to tell the story, with plenty of potential to revisit it as it develops.”

 

“Another real trend at the moment is crime that is perpetrated or at least begun online,” Tanner says. “We have a new series from the US called I Met My Murderer Online, which is a long-running series of 26 self-contained episodes, each talking about a murder that began with a chance meeting online. A big part of this is having enough volume to attract pay nets and cablenets around the world, as opposed to a lot of true crime that is specials or miniseries.”

 

Engineering Reborn
Engineering Reborn

In addition to true crime, Tanner and his team have their eyes on another trend. “Something we have noticed in recent months is a resurgence in police, emergency services, blue-light programming,” he says. “Long-running, procedural, crime-based programming has always been popular but, like anything, it’s cyclical. Now is a high-water mark, particularly for British content in this space.”

 

Passion and Mentorn have a long-standing partnership on Channel 5’s Traffic Cops and are now working on a new series with Red Sauce and UKTV called Special Ops: Crime Squad UK, focusing on a taskforce set up across the emergency services to solve very particular crimes. “It’s an interesting way of pushing the envelope in this genre,” Tanner says.

 

Secrets of Royal Gardens
Secrets of Royal Gardens

In the factual series space, Passion has commissioned Engineering Reborn (working title) from sister company Pioneer Productions. An ambitious access-led show that reveals how engineering icons of the past are transformed into inspirational beacons of the future.

 

Engineers and architects are reusing, reimagining and rehabilitating on an epic scale. The show features truly global stories such as a German blimp hangar transformed into the world’s largest water park, New York’s high line railroad that is now a 2km elevated public park, and a Korean military bunker spectacularly reimagined into a cultural centre.

 

Another series with access at its heart, Secrets of Royal Gardens, has been produced by Pioneer Productions for Channel 4’s More4 platform in the UK. “The royals are a perennial topic that is popular with television audiences around the world, but what’s different here is the subject is not the famous palaces and castles but the environment that surround them,” Tanner says. “It’s about some of the most famous open landscape and gardens in the world, and yet the public rarely have access and little is known about them.”



More programming profiles

  • 26-03-2020

    The UK’s Passion Distribution is offering buyers a broad slate of programming through a bespoke company screening on C21 Digital Screenings, ranging from political documentaries to light-hearted fare, reports Inigo Alexander.

     

    If there is one word to describe Passion Distribution’s programming slate, it would be ‘depth.’ The Tinopolis-owned UK-based distributor is running a C21 Digital Company Screening of titles fitting of the contemporary – and temporarily confined – world we live in, catering to audiences’ diverse and varying tastes..

     

    Passion’s slate, which was put together prior to the global coronavirus pandemic and was originally intended to be presented to buyers at MipTV, includes 12 titles that are featured on the company’s C21 Screenings playlist. They span a number of genres, from hard-hitting political documentaries, to light-hearted appointment viewing.

     

    As a result of the cancellation and postponement of a swathe of industry markets, Passion will also be presenting its slate to buyers digitally via its own online Passion Distribution Pop-Up Market. READ MORE