BAFTA award-winning independent producer Hannah Pescod (Rev. The Job Lot) and multi award-winning writer and actor Tom Hollander (Rev. A Poet in New York) today announce their independent production company Bandstand Productions.
Alex Mahon joins as non-executive chair and the company has entered into an exclusive first-look deal with leading independent distributor all3media international.
Hollander and Pescod first worked together on the BAFTA award-winning BBC Two series Rev. for Big Talk Productions, which was devised by Hollander with writer James Wood. Hollander received three BAFTA nominations for his performance as the Reverend Adam Smallbone and won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for best comedy writer with his co-creator James Wood.
As well as acting and writing on the series Hollander had an Executive Producer role, while Pescod joined the Rev. team in the early stages of development, producing the first two series before becoming Executive Producer on the third and final series.
In a joint statement, Hollander and Pescod said:
“We are excited to continue our creative collaboration, supported by Alex Mahon’s immense experience and expertise.”
The pair are working closely together to build a boutique slate of drama projects, including original ideas from writers they already know, those from new relationships, and some of their own creations, as well as adaptations of classic and contemporary novels. Hollander will be actively involved in development and production of all Bandstand’s projects, in a natural progression from his executive producing of Rev. He will also feature on screen in some of them.
Maartje Horchner, Head of Acquisitions at all3media international said:
“We are absolutely delighted to be working with with Bandstand Productions as they launch their new business. Tom and Hannah bring a wealth of experience and a strong creative energy to this new partnership and I am very much looking forward to showcasing their innovative and compelling slate to our global clients.”
Tom Hollander recently won Best Actor at the Royal Television Society Awards for his performance as Dylan Thomas in A Poet in New York. He has just completed filming Dr Thorne, a six part drama series produced by Hat Trick Productions and The Weinstein Company for ITV, in which he plays the title role, and he is shortly to be seen in The Night Manager for BBC/AMC, Tulip Fever for The Weinstein Company and Andy Serkis’s The Jungle Book: Origins for Warner Bros.
Previous television work includes Rev., Any Human Heart, The Lost Prince, Gracie (for which he received a BAFTA nomination), Absolutely Fabulous and The Cambridge Spies. Film includes Pride & Prejudice, winning both the Evening Standard and London Critic Circle awards for his performance as Mr Collins; In the Loop and The Libertine, both of which saw him nominated for best supporting actor at the BIFAs; Gosford Park, Pirates of the Caribbean II and III, Valkyrie, The Soloist, Hanna, Enigma and The Invisible Woman.
Hannah Pescod trained as a script editor on The Bill before joining children’s indie Darrall Macqueen where she set up and ran the scripts for their first drama UGetMe, and also co-created and co-produced sitcom The Crust.
For Hat Trick, she produced BAFTA-winning children’s drama That Summer Day and went on to develop a slate of drama projects for them, including an anthology of contemporary re-tellings of fairy tales for primetime BBC One, for which she produced two of the pieces, Billy Goat and Rapunzel.
Pescod joined Big Talk to develop the BAFTA-winning series Rev., which she produced for two series before going on to executive produce the third. She also developed new drama and comedy projects for the company, including ITV sitcom The Job Lot.
Alex Mahon is Chief Executive of leading design and visual effects software firm, The Foundry. Prior to that, she was Chief Executive Officer of Shine Group from 2012 until July 2015 when she stepped down after successfully completing the sale of the company into a joint venture between 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management. She joined Shine as Managing Director in 2006, prior to which she held a number of senior positions in media organisations across Europe including talkbackTHAMES, part of FremantleMedia Group and RTL Group.
Mahon is also currently a Non-Executive Director of Ocado Plc and The Edinburgh International Television Festival, chairs the RTS Awards, serves on the DCMS advisory panel on the BBC and is Appeal Chair of The Healing Foundation, a national charity funding pioneering and transformative medical research into disfigurement.
all3media international distributes popular, award-winning TV programmes to over 1000 broadcasters and media platforms around the world.
The company has been celebrated for producing, marketing and distributing quality, ground-breaking and pioneering shows to global audience – consistently topping the Broadcast and Televisual annual Indies Surveys and has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in recognition of its growth – twice.
all3media international’s catalogue contains over 7,000 hours of content across all genres, with a focus on drama, comedy, factual, entertainment and formats. As well as Britain’s top-selling series Midsomer Murders, their lead dramas include The Missing, Indian Summers, Foyle’s War, Skins, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Hinterland. Factual, entertainment and format bestsellers include Gogglebox, Undercover Boss, The Gadget Show, The Cube, The Only Way is Essex and The Million Second Quiz.
As part of the UK’s leading multi-label studio they partner with UK and international producers – including their own studios – in developing, financing and delivering content and formats.
www.bandstandproductions.com / @bandstandprods