U.K.’s Channel 4 Picks Up Volodymyr Zelensky’s ‘Servant of the People’
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Britain’s Channel 4 has picked up rights to Servant of the People, the Ukraine comedy series starring Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and the show that launched his political career.
The sitcom sees Zelensky playing an ordinary man who accidentally becomes president of Ukraine. First broadcast in 2016, Servant of the People was a huge hit in Ukraine, so much so that it helped Zelensky launch a real-life political career. His ground roots political party, also called Servant of the People, helped him to a resounding victory in 2019 when he was elected president with an overwhelming majority.
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Zelensky has become the focus of the world’s attention since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last week. The Ukraine president has been a model example of a wartime leader, posting defiant videos from the streets of the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, and calling on his citizens to fight.
Swedish television group Eccho Rights picked up the international rights to Servant of the People and licensed the series to Channel 4. MBC in the Middle East, ANT 1 in Greece and PRO TV in Romania have also acquired the show.
“Eccho Rights stands in solidarity with our friends and partners in Ukraine. It is our position that the best support the global television industry can offer to Ukraine today is to share this story,” said Fredrik af Malmborg, managing director at Eccho Rights.
Eccho Rights is licensing all three seasons of Servant of the People as well as a feature film based on the show.
“The series is a comedy but also an important document of where Zelensky comes from,” said Eccho managing partner Nicola Söderlund. “His fictional president is a normal man, who grows into his role as a heroic and adored leader. While the real-world scenario facing Zelensky and the Ukrainian people is far more grim and appalling than the comedy of the series, there are obvious parallels with the real-world situation, and Servant of the People is a fascinating, important and historic piece of television.”
Eccho Rights on Wednesday also announced it was dropping all Russian-owned and produced series from its catalog in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
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