Long-established factual and fact ent indie Zig Zag Productions has become the latest victim of the commissioning slowdown after declaring insolvency.
The indie has been closed down amid a restructure of the Zig Zag group, with sister companies Zig Zag Holdings and Zig Zag Media Rights continuing trading. Six positions have been made redundant.
The company is the latest high-profile British unscripted company to fold in the past year, following the closure of Bristol’s Icon Films and Banijay label RDF TV.
Founded 25 years ago by producer Danny Fenton, Zig Zag’s output has ranged from a string of sports shows to ITVX's Laura Whitmore Investigates, Sky’s The Assassination of John Lennon and Fox’s controversial reality show I Wanna Marry Harry.
Its catalogue includes documentaries fronted by Danny Dyer, Freddie Flintoff, Vinnie Jones and Stacey Solomon
While upcoming doc Troublemaker: The Story Behind the Mandela Tapes is understood to be unaffected, Deadline has reported that three Zig Zag shows worth a combined £4.5m remained in limbo due to delays caused by market uncertainty.
Fenton told Deadline: “Due to well-publicised market conditions and a global slowdown of commissioning, we are in the unenviable position of restructuring our group of companies and, as a result, placing Zig Zag Productions into an insolvency process.
“I’m incredibly proud of Zig Zag Productions’ 25-year history and the award-winning programming we have produced during that time and sorry that we weren’t able to weather the storm. I’d like to place on record my thanks to all the staff and partners in the industry who have been on this journey with us.”
