Sherwood producer House Productions is planning a bigger push into comedy with the opening of a Manchester office.
House North is producing the second series of James Graham’s BBC1 drama, which is filmed in and around Nottingham and Manchester.
Heading up the office is Louise Sutton, who previously developed series seven of Netflix’s Black Mirror as an executive producer for Charlie Brooker and Annabel Jones’ indie Broke & Bones, having produced episodes of its fourth series.
Louise Sutton
Sutton, who has also produced the likes of Death in Paradise and Midsomer Murders, will oversee all of House’s drama production in the north and is being tasked with building up the company’s comedy slate.
The indie said it wants to work with new and established voices in comedy to develop and star in scripted comedy and comedy-drama shows.
House North will also explore half-hour dramas and young-skewing shows, building on Sutton’s time as head of drama and young audiences at Hollyoaks producer Lime Pictures.
Tessa Howell and Juliette Ross set up the BBC Studios-owned company seven years ago and it has primarily made dramas to date, including BBC2’s Life After Life, Channel 4 single Brexit: The Uncivil War, ITVX’s Six Four and feature film The Wonder. UKTV’s Women on the Verge, a co-production with Merman and co-written by Sharon Horgan, was its first foray into comedy-drama.
Women on the Verge
House's upcoming movie Starve Acre was filmed in Yorkshire and premieres next month at the London Film Festival.
In a statement, Howell and Ross described Sutton as “a renowned producer with particularly deep roots in the region”.
They added: “We’re looking forward to growing House’s relationships with creative talent even further, and to finding more of those great storytellers and stories that are truly rooted and yet entirely universal.”
