Partnership Agreement between BBC and Northern Ireland Screen renewed
Date Posted: June 24, 2021
BBC Director-General Tim Davie and Northern Ireland Screen Chairwoman Rotha Johnston today visited the set of new BBC and Britbox crime drama, Hope Street in the seaside town of Donaghadee. During the visit, the BBC and Northern Ireland Screen officially renewed their ground-breaking partnership agreement reaffirming their commitment to the development of the local screen industry across Northern Ireland.
The partnership, now in its seventh year, has enabled many successes to date including the recent series of Line of Duty, recognised as the most watched drama series of the century so far.
The ambitious new deal seeks to exceed the three percent investment of network television budget from the BBC which has been the target for earlier agreements. This financial commitment will further improve Northern Ireland’s representation to global and UK audiences with a portfolio of world class drama, children’s, animation, factual and entertainment and documentaries. It follows a commitment from the BBC earlier this year to transfer power and decision making across the UK to better reflect, represent and serve all parts of the country.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie said: “The BBC is incredibly proud of our work in Northern Ireland and our partnership with Northern Ireland Screen. What has been achieved since the beginning of this partnership has been incredible and the new agreement takes it even further, allowing us to make more content, support more jobs and investment in Northern Ireland and develop and nurture new talent.”
Rotha Johnston, Chairwoman of Northern Ireland Screen said ‘This partnership has delivered for Northern Ireland across drama, children’s and most recently factual/entertainment content. The refined focus within the terms of the renewed partnership on infrastructure, skills, project development and quality production is what’s needed to ensure the long term sustainability of the screen industry here. Our ambition for engagement with the BBC continues to rise with this agreement presenting the BBC network quota as the floor not the ceiling for BBC engagement with our flourishing screen industry.”
Over the last six years of the partnership, the BBC and Northern Ireland Screen have successfully collaborated on a range of projects including big network commissions, talent development across the sector and homegrown content representing Northern Ireland’s past and present.
Between the last partnership renewal in March 2017 and March 2021, the BBC invested £70 million in network production from Northern Ireland, as part of the partnership, alongside just under £10 million from Northern Ireland Screen levering an additional £55 million of third party funding.
During the same period, Northern Ireland Screen and the BBC also co-financed 56 Irish Language projects and 43 Ulster-Scots projects for broadcast in Northern Ireland.
The renewed partnership arrangement signed today by BBC Director General, Tim Davie and Northern Ireland Screen Chair, Rotha Johnston will now focus on four key areas; Infrastructure, Development, Skills and Partnership and a continued commitment to invest in TV production.
The BBC will collaborate with Northern Ireland Screen on the proposed new Screen Media Innovation Lab (SMIL) – led by Ulster University as part of the Belfast Region City Deal. By integrating production, innovation and research activity SMIL aims to be the Centre of Excellence for Virtual production in the UK. The BBC will seek to align R&D and innovation activity in virtual production with SMIL. It will also explore opportunities for future proofing TV production in Northern Ireland.
Training programmes delivered through the partnership will be extended to ensure the sector can be maintained with a talented and diverse workforce into the future. The Aim High trainee scheme will be recommissioned with a focus on diversity and both parties will work with others to provide apprenticeship opportunities for a wide range of young people.
Northern Ireland Screen and BBC are also committed to collaborating on the reduction of the carbon footprint of the screen industries in Northern Ireland.
Two new commissions have also been announced today – which have been commissioned as part of the partnership. Her Name Is Ottilie is a new BBC Arts co-commission between BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Four made by DoubleBand Films telling the story of Ottilie Paterson, a young singer from Comber in Northern Ireland who found inspiration in the music of Black America and became known as the godmother of British blues. Jazz singer Dana Masters goes on a journey to discover Ottilie’s forgotten story and to reclaim her place in the annals of popular music.
Also announced today is Stitch, Please! a new factual entertainment series from Waddell Media commissioned by BBC Three as a result of its collaborative partnership with BBC Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen. Local companies were invited to submit format ideas with the promise of a Factual Entertainment series commission for the network channel. Hosted by drag queen and social media star Blu Hydrangea from Northern Ireland, who featured in series one of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK, Stitch, Please! will follow two contributors each week, as they compete to create a different outfit inspired by iconic designs from the worlds of fashion, film, television and cosplay. This is the second BBC Three series commission under the agreement having previously greenlit Fast and Farmer(ish) as well as pilots for Scran With My Nan and Fast Food Face Off.
BBC NI and Northern Ireland Screen are co-investing in an eight-10 part observational documentary series for BBC Two which will increase representation on the channel across the UK.
Since the last renewal of the agreement in 2017 BBC and Northern Ireland Screen have co-invested in locally produced network drama including the aforementioned Hope Street and the highly-anticipated Conversations With Friends. Other Network dramas include Mrs Wilson, Death and Nightingales, Come Home, Three Families, and Dublin Murders, the record-breaking Line of Duty and local crime thriller Bloodlands, starring James Nesbitt, which has recently been recommissioned for a second series alongside new police drama Blue Lights.
The BBC and Northern Ireland Screen have also joined forces to support documentaries and feature documentaries with international appeal including Hear My Voice, Seamus Heaney and the music of what happens, DeLorean: Back From The Future, Different League: The Derry City Story, and factual commissions for BBC Two including Mountain Vets and quiz show Lightning as well as the iconic Mastermind which has filmed in Belfast since 2019.
The new agreement will see the continued commitment for Irish Language and Ulster Scots content, aiming to create opportunities for programmes to be viewed by audiences all across the UK.
The partnership has also reaped successes in Children’s and Animation content with retuning series for Millie in Between, The Secret Life of Boys, Almost Never and CBeebies’ animation Pablo as well as investment for Joe All Alone, Flatmates, Nova Jones and Silverpoint.
The BBC and Northern Ireland Screen Partnership Agreement is available to download here.
