ITVX Comedy Series ‘The Dry’ Extended for Second Season – Global Bulletin

Patrick Frater

DRY SPELL EXTENDED

ITV has commissioned a second season of the comedy-drama series “The Dry” for ITVX. It will be produced by Element Pictures (part of Fremantle), in association with Fís Eireann/Screen Ireland and ITV Studios, in partnership with RTÉ. Nancy Harris (Dates) and acclaimed director Paddy Breathnach (Viva, Rosie) will return to helm the second season, which will stream exclusively on ITVX next year. The first season was made available to view for free on the streamer last month. With the story picking up seven months after the end of the first, Roisin Gallagher will return as recovering alcoholic Shiv Sheridan, alongside regular cast members from the first series. Further casting details will be confirmed later. in due course.

Emma Norton, Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe will serve as executive producers for Element Pictures, alongside Nancy Harris and Paddy Breathnach. ITV Studios is handling global distribution of the show.

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SUSPICIOUS MOVES

Linear TV rights sales on Uma Thurman-starring thriller “Suspicion” head the MIPTV slate of producer and distributor Keshet International. The show, a remake of Keshet’s “False Flag” was originally commissioned for streamer Apple TV+, which launched it in February last year. Directed by Chris Long the plot involves a trans-Atlantic cat and mouse game as the kidnappers of the son of a wealthy American businesswoman (Thurman) try to evade law enforcement agencies. It also stars Kunal Nayar, Noah Emmericah, Georgina Campbell, Elyes Gabel, Elizabeth Henstridge, Tom Rhys-Harries and Angel Coulby.

At MIPTV, Keshet will also showcase surrogacy drama “A Body That Works,” modern-day western “Line in the Sand,” one-part investigation “Sexual Harassment – The Truth,” and romance format “I Do, But With Who?”.

RED CARPET

Clara Amfo and Michelle Visage have been announced as the red carpet hosts for this year’s BAFTA Television Awards, which are presented in association with P&O Cruises. Amfo is an award-winning broadcaster, podcaster and television presenter. Visage is a TV personality, radio show host, and author. The show will be held on May 14. The awards recognize quality and variety of television that was enjoyed in 2022, with shows such as “This Is Going To Hurt,” “The Responder,” “Bad Sisters” and “The Crown” leading the nominations. The awards will be hosted by comedians Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan and will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer.

INSANITY HIRING

U.K.-based talent agency Insanity has hired Andrew Roach as senior talent manager. His clients include Adam Pearson, Briony May Williams, Lee Ridley (“Lost Voice Guy”), Mark Lane, Ruben Reuter, Samantha Renke and Shani Dhanda. Roach has scripted and unscripted programming experience and has advocated for deaf, disabled and neurodivergent talent in tandem with broadcasters, production companies and organizations such as DDPTV and the BFI. “We want to work with stakeholders across the industry to create more opportunities both on and off screen for disabled talent and those with additional needs,” said founder and CEO Andy Varley.

NATURE TRAIL

Love Nature, a wildlife and nature brand with linear and streaming channels available in over 145 countries, has appointed Sabrina Sahel to the role of affiliate sales director, covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where she is expected to grow the channel business. A polyglot with cable and TV experience in the U.K and continental Europe, she will be based at Blue Ant Media’s new Belgium-based office. She reports directly to Chiara McKee, VP EMEA, Love Nature.

TACKLING TROLLS

U.K. broadcaster and program producer ITV has launched a ‘Social Media Awareness Hub,’ designed to help all participants on ITV-produced or commissioned shows to deal with trolling online. Built by online training specialists Acteon, the hub provides practical advice on how to navigate unwanted attention from social media, including how to handle hurtful comments, manage online privacy and where to get further support. 

Online trolling is an increasingly common issue. New research commissioned by ITV shows that almost one-third of U.K. adults aged 16+ have received some form of negative comments online, with this increasing significantly for 16-34s.

The launch of the hub is complementary to ITV’s wider initiative to tackle online abuse, through a behavior change campaign, “Would you say it?” The advertising campaign is developed by ITV Creative in partnership with non-profit organization The Cybersmile Foundation.

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