Channel 4 has stepped in to invest in Leeds neighbour Duck Soup Films, which recently parted ways with Fremantle.
The broadcaster has taken a minority stake in the drama producer through its Indie Growth Fund, adding to a recent suite of investments in companies such as Uplands TV, Proper Content, Yeti Media and Big Deal Films.
Duck Soup was founded in 2015 by a trio of creatives who had previously collaborated on Shane Meadows’ This Is England movie and TV trilogy: creative director Libby Durdy, finance director Jessica Holyland and managing director Bekki Wray-Rogers (seated left-to-right in main picture in the news section).
Fremantle took a 25% stake in the company in 2017 and Duck Soup produced podcast Baby, It’s Cold Outside for the super-indie’s Storyglass label.
In May last year, Duck Soup secured one of the first wave of 14 investments, totalling a combined £3m, from the BFI’s Young Adult Content Fund for Dance School, a drama series about a diverse group of students in the Chapeltown area of Leeds.
The indie’s development slate includes projects with Jack Thorne, who co-wrote This is England with Meadows, plus Ackley Bridge and A Discovery of Witches writer Lisa Holdsworth and comedian Jessica Knappett, who created E4 comedy Drifters.
