News

Channel 5 is joining The Forsytes.

The Paramount network has taken UK rights on PBS Masterpiece’s splashy adaptation of John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga, which stars Doctor Who’s Millie Gibson and Francesca Annis as formidable matriarch Ann.

Penned by British screenwriter Debbie Horsfield (Poldark), the series chronicles the lives of four generations of an upper-class family of stockbrokers, set against the backdrop of a rapidly evolving late-Victorian world. True Blood star Stephen Moyer (Sexy Beast) also features alongside the likes of Jack Davenport (The Morning Show) and Gibson.

This is the third Forsyte Saga adaptation. A version aired in 1967 on the BBC and 35 years later on ITV. The new show is made by ITV Studios-backed Mammoth Screen and is a rare example of a British show being greenlit by an American network, with Channel 5 coming in at a later date. Channel 5 also combines with PBS Masterpiece...

“‘Alliance’ is the mot du jour for all players on the global scripted scene,” says Alice Sommer, Head of Drama at Norwegian network TV2.

She should know — her channel is part of Scandi Alliance, one of several groupings of networks in Europe who’ve teamed to beat the global economics that appear to be stacking against those trying to fund high-end TV drama.

Indeed, heading into the London TV Screenings next week, the global industry faces a scripted cash crisis. U.S. networks have largely retrenched into domestic stories, Europe’s public broadcasters face myriad funding problems and distributors appear only to want low-risk bets. Speaking to Deadline earlier this week, Catch You Later producer Mike Benson from Clapperboard Studios summed up the problem for producers: Traditionally, “Most of your Mg [minimum guarantee] is underpinned by a good American sale, and if you don’t have that you’re looking to the rest of the world.