Member Article

TV Ratings Boost for North East Production Company

A Newcastle-based production company has enlisted the help of celebrities Germaine Greer and Scott Henshall to help make their new TV series a success.

Wayward Women, produced by Different, detailed the lives of 30 of history’s most notorious women including pioneering aviator Amy Johnson whose glamorous life was cut short by a mysterious plane crash in 1941, the scandalous Mitford sisters who nurtured a controversial friendship with Hitler, the many affairs of Newcastle’s lesbian adventuress Jane Gomeldon and the plots of mystic Mary Bateman, the ‘Yorkshire Witch’ who was tried and executed for witchcraft.

Official viewing figures from ITV1 reveal that throughout the series each episode was watched by approximately 25% of the viewing public. At its peak around 250,000 people across the North East and Yorkshire watched Wayward Women. The six part series featured celebrity contributors such as writer and academic Germaine Greer, fashion designer Scott Henshall, broadcaster and former editor of Viz Simon Donald and Gateshead-born singer Michelle Heaton.

Different, based in Newcastle City Centre, was commissioned to produce Wayward Women at the start of this year after coming up with the concept in 2007 and worked with Dene Films on the project.

The success of this series will now allow Different to progress with plans to produce more TV programmes and work with leading media companies, such as the BBC, ITV and five, and continue to create jobs in the North East.

Chris Rickaby, a director at Different, added: “Wayward Women has proved to be a huge success for us and Dene Films, who helped to produce the series. We are managing to win more and more TV commissions which is great news for the North East as it means that, not only is more TV produced outside of London, but also that we can secure and create more media-related jobs to help with our growth plans.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .