The Brit List TV 2019: Projects From Big Talk, Warp Films & NBCU-Backed Heyday Lead Lineup

Peter White

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Drama projects from The Young Offenders writer Karen Cogan, Mum producer Big Talk, The Virtues producer Warp Films and NBCUniversal-backed Heyday Television lead the Brit List: TV 2019, the UK television equivalent of The Black List.

The Brit List, overseen by Alexandra Arlango, has published its second television rankings of unproduced drama scripts from British writers with 24 making the final list from 232 scripts put forward.

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The top project, which received twenty recommendations from industry executives is Fled, a dark comedy drama from rising writer Karen Cogan, who has written on the second season of BBC Three series The Young Offenders. The show follows a pregnant girl and a scared nun, who are forced together to find some kind of freedom in the last remaining mother and baby Home in 90s Ireland.

Other shows with the most recommendations including Big Talk’s crime thriller Only Child from Ryan J Brown and IRA thriller Samson and Goliath from Conor Keane. Warp Films has character-led drama Furies from Archie Maddocks and comedy drama Leafy about a British-born, LA-based music producer from Tallulah Brown, while Heyday and NBC Universal has Winter, about a young poet, from Elliot Barnes-Worrell.

The Brit List: TV 2019

Fled by Karen Cogan (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Available
Genre: Darkly comedic, provocative drama.
Summary: A pregnant girl and a scared nun are forced together to find some kind of freedom in the last remaining Mother and Baby Home in 90s Ireland.

Only Child by Ryan J Brown (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Big Talk
Genre: Crime thriller
Summary: A grieving mother from a small northern town finds new life in the dangerous pursuit of the serial killer who framed her daughter for mass murder.

Samson and Goliath by Conor Keane (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Big Talk
Genre: Thriller
Summary: Sean Colgan owns Belfast’s third biggest party hire company. He’s also killed 16 people for the IRA. When a victim’s body shows up after 20 years, his past – and his old colleagues – come back to haunt him.

Furies by Archie Maddocks (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Warp Films
Genre: Character-led drama
Summary: A family of black women decide to take justice into their own hands after the youngest daughter is injured in a drive-by shooting. Crashing together drama, humour and action, the series explores how far we are willing to go to protect our family and what we’ll let slide in the name of love.

On the Verge by Anna Ssemuyaba (Casarotto)
Producers: Tiger Aspect
Genre: Comedy Drama
Summary: The misadventures of a 16 year old girl from South London, struggling to survive after she’s launched into the world of oversexed, over-educated and hedonistically Catholic teenagers at her new school.

Winter by Elliot Barnes-Worrell (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Heyday / NBC Universal
Genre: Drama
Summary: A drama with humour about a young poet trying to survive a hostile London whilst going through an identity crisis about being mixed race.

Leafy by Tallulah Brown (United Agents)
Producers: Warp Films
Genre: Comedy Drama
Summary: British-born, LA-based music producer Nico must deal with a bipolar diagnosis and her explosive relationship with her Mum after she gets deported. A fierce and funny series set between the UK and US about music, mental health and returning to your roots.

When I’m not Around by Lee Coan (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Bandit Cornwall
Genre: Family Comedy Drama
Summary: Nine year old gymnast Amelie’s cancer diagnosis puts pressure on her family. Despite their best attempts to cope, her ex-serviceman father struggles to find a job, her sister is bullied, and her mother tries to work out how to balance Amelie’s illness and her desire to live a normal life.

Cutting Class by Abi Gliddon (Curtis Brown Group)
Producers: Headline Pictures
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Summary: Maryam, the daughter of a Sheikh, goes missing from her elite London school. As her two best friends try to locate and protect her, they come up against her father’s sinister security operation and an exploding international scandal. Out of their depths, the girls turn to their mothers for help.

Wrath by David MacPherson (The Agency)
Producers: Balloon Entertainment
Genre: Drama
Summary: Cape Wrath has a drug problem. The source: Hugh Bremen. When a curious hitman and a bullied bank clerk team up to deal with him, a chain reaction of vengeance is unleashed.

How To Get Rid of Carol by Anna Mason (Curtis Brown Group)
Producers: Available
Genre: Comedy Drama
Summary: When Jess, a socially awkward, Yorkshire based Ski-shop owner, is faced with losing her ‘soul mate’ Tristan to the free-spirited, award winning ski boot-fitter Carol – she desperately suggests the only thing she can do to keep him – a throuple. This is definitely not a love story.

Smilla’s Sense Of Snow by Clive Bradley (The Agency)
Producers: Constantin Film
Genre: Thriller
Summary: Adapted from Peter Høeg’s novel.

Supercut by Rose Cartwright (The Artist’s Partnership)
Producers: Available
Genre: Sci-fi Thriller
Summary: A self-obsessed young woman, living in the sleazy glamour and celebrity of 2040s Los Angeles, gets entangled in the psychological, cosmetic and genetic manipulation of the perfection industry.

A Single Lie by Caroline Carver (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Ecosse Films
Genre: Thriller
Summary: When a woman is accused of stealing another woman’s baby from a hospital 17 years earlier, her shocking past crashes into her perfect present to devastating effect.

Not Suitable for Children by Cat Clarke (Dench Arnold Agency)
Producers: Available
Genre: Comedy Drama
Summary: The lives, loves and shenanigans of three queer women navigating the overwhelmingly straight, privileged–and downright absurd–world of children’s publishing.

Westphalia by Alyn Farrow (Curtis Brown Group)
Producers: Available
Genre: Dark Drama
Summary: As the police struggle to control a number of internet vigilante groups, one member of the online community threatens to change the rules for everyone.

Wolf by Tony Grisoni (Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates Ltd)
Producers: Potboiler Productions Ltd
Genre: Multi-narrative epic
Summary: A contemporary refugee story dovetails with the post-WW2 invasion of Sicily. The action follows a clutch of characters as they converge on Sicily where an unholy alliance is to be formed between the Mafia and the occupying Anglo-American forces. With powerful echoes of contemporary meddling in the Near and Middle East.

Money Trees by Adam Gyngell & Fred Armesto (Sayle Screen)
Producers: Circle of Confusion
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Summary: A cynical IRS agent finds her life transformed when she goes undercover to investigate an enigmatic self-help guru who promises he can make anyone a millionaire in a year.

The Drip by Jess Jackson (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Available
Genre: Thriller
Summary: An undercover CIA agent starts to lose faith in his country when his mission forces him to deceive and abuse his fellow Americans.

Raging by Florence Keith-Roach (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Ecosse Films
Genre: Dramedy
Summary: Tackling the taboo of female anger, this is an irreverent and provocative comedy series about a young woman’s journey to confront her crippling rage, after a clip of her hitting her boyfriend in a public, lambrini soaked outburst goes viral.

Brown Tape by Namsi Khan (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Available
Genre: Family Thriller
Summary: British Pakistani immigrant, Saad Maliq, attempts to settle old scores and claim control of Manchester’s drug trade by intercepting a shipment of Afghani heroin.

The Borough by Daniel Rusteau (Knight Hall Agency)
Producers: Available
Genre: Crime Drama
Summary: Two infamous families of the underworld battle for control of an Essex borough.

Four Nineteen by Ashley Sanders (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: The Forge / Newscope Films
Genre: Grounded Sci-fi Mystery Thriller
Summary: Fifteen years ago a four-year-old boy was mysteriously abducted one night at 4:19 am and later returned. This event will change the past of some but the future of all.

The Lost Chix by Lauren Sequeira (The Agency)
Producers: New Pictures
Genre: Drama
Summary: When Lily returns to the “Lost Town” estate she tries to get back in with her old girl gang, but is iced out by ex-bestie Niesha. When she smuggles herself onto a honeytrap, orchestrated by The Lost Boys, Lily discovers that her Chix are enslaved to them. However, when she finds a way for the Chix to make their own moves, Lily offers Niesha a tempting proposition.

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