Sky wants longer dramas

Written by Dominic Knight

Thursday, 11 March 2010 22:22

Sky is hoping to developer longer drama series’ instead of the big “block- sky buster” one-offs that currently are a feature of Sky One’s output. The broadcaster is hoping to develop more home-grown drama’s and acquire a bigger share of drama output in the UK. The broadcaster is hoping to run longer drama’s seasons, consisting of 13 episodes, instead of the traditional UK format of between six and eight episodes for most drama’s. Elaine Pyke, drama commissioning editor for BSkyB, told the Broadcast TV Drama Forum that “big episodic series” were now her chief priority.

Recent drama on Sky One has tended to be big “event” drama and one-off dramas such as Skellig or The Take. However, in the past the broadcaster has had long running serials such as camp football drama Dream Team which ran for several seasons, Mile High which was basically Dream Team but with “trolley dollys” instead of footballers and dark supernatural series Hex which ran for two seasons on Sky One and starred Jemima Rooper and Christina Cole. The broadcaster announced two years ago it was developing a new version of the cult classic sci fi Blakes 7 but there has been no further news since the original announcement.