Television
CBL has an established track record producing comedy, drama and documentaries for BBC Television, Channel 4 and ITV.
In Development:
Wilf the Mighty Worrier
CBL and AMAZE TV in Toronto have teamed up to produce Wilf the Mighty Worrier, an animated TV series which they have sold to Apple TV.
Quick Cuts
Our successful British comedy series, Quick Cuts, is now in development as a co-production with CBL and the production company New Kinetic to produce the American version of the series.
In 2020 Kinetic Content, and German/UK based Red Arrow Studios, announced a new joint venture New Kinetic focusing on developing high-end scripted TV series with global appeal for the US marketplace. The creative aim of the company is working with gifted creators and discovering new voices/worlds to focus on premium high-end, English-language scripted TV series with both domestic and international appeal serving the US scripted market while utilising Red Arrow Studios’ international reach.
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Quick Cuts is a fast paced, quick cutting sitcom set in a hairdressing salon – but it is a sitcom with a difference. It is a sitcom crossed with a sketch show. So the scenes are short and joke rich and explore the confessional nature of going to hairdressers.
Like The Thick Of It and Smack The Pony, workshops were used as part of the scripting process for some of the customer scenes. The camera sometimes acts as the mirror in the shop while disguising stand up and sketches within the narrative to give the show a bold and unique texture and tone.
Like Cheers, this is the only place where these characters could possibly work. No-one else but the owner Sue (Doon Makichan) would put up with employees who are so bad, screwed up, unreliable or dishonest. They are one big dysfunctional co-dependent family.
Produced by Catherine Bailey. Directed by Natalie Bailey.
“Hilarious” – Sun
“Brilliant” – Radio Times
“Engaging, sharp” – Sunday Times
“This is a rare thing: a likeable comedy with some endearing characters” – Sunday Times
“Snappily written, a cut above” – Radio Times
“Refreshingly offbeat” – Times
Betty Davis: Godmother of Funk
BBC Four
Funk Queen Betty Davis changed the landscape for female artists in America. She ‘was the first’, as former husband Miles Davis said. ‘Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince’.
An aspiring songwriter from a small steel town, Betty arrived on the 70s scene to break boundaries for women with her daring personality, iconic fashion and outrageous funk music. She befriended Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, wrote songs for the Chambers Brothers and the Commodores, and married Miles – startlingly turning him from jazz to funk on the album she named ‘Bitches Brew’. She then, despite being banned and boycotted, went on to become the first black woman to perform, write and manage herself.
Betty was a feminist pioneer, inspiring and intimidating in a manner like no woman before. Then suddenly – she just vanished. Betty Mabry Davis is a global icon whose mysterious life story has until now, never been told. Creatively blending documentary and animation, this movie traces the path of Betty’s life, how she grew from humble upbringings to become a fully self-realized black female pioneer the world failed to understand or appreciate, revealing the mystery of her 35-year disappearance and her battle with mental illness and poverty. After years of trying, the elusive Betty finally allowed the film-makers to creatively tell her story based on their conversations.
Life of Riley
(BBC One)
The third series of eight episodes of LIFE OF RILEY was transmitted in 2011. LIFE OF RILEY is an original comedy produced by CBL, written by Georgia Pritchett and starring Caroline Quentin for the BBC. The first series transmitted on BBC One in January 2009, and its second was transmitted in March 2010. All three series were distributed by Warner Brothers.
Feel the Force
(BBC Two)
Feel The Force by Georgia Pritchett is an original comedy series TXd on BBC 2 in 2006. It stars Michelle Gomez, Rosie Cavaliero and Leigh Zimmerman. Click here to watch the Feel the Force trailer. The format rights to Feel the Force were bought by Warner Brothers.
Barking!
(ITV)
Three series of a Children’s Comedy; a co-production with Granada Television for ITV (Nominated for a BAFTA). Barking! is a British children’s TV series on CITV. It stars Kate McGowan as Jezza, a teenage girl with a talking dog named Georgie, voiced by Will Mellor
Documentaries
Still Missing
(Channel Four)
Won a First Time Broadcast Award
The SS John Barry
(Discovery)
A documentary about the recovery of 1.4 million silver coins from a Shipwreck in the Arabian Sea shot and directed by Catherine Bailey.
The Mysterious Cargo of The General Abbatucci
(Discovery)
Directed by Catherine Bailey
The Douro Cargo
(Spink and The Royal Mint)
Directed by Catherine Bailey
Cutting Edge: Safari Strife
(Channel 4)
Directed by Edward Hall
Cutting Edge: Great House Wives
(Channel 4)
Directed by Marilyn Gaunt
BBC Late Show ‘Specials’
(BBC Two)
Two forty minute film ’specials’ for the BBC Late Show: Drama in Salzburg, a profile of the theatre director, Deborah Warner; and Truly, Madly… Alan Rickman, a programme following a year in the life of the actor, Alan Rickman
We Are The Indians
(More4)
A documentary feature directed by Philip Cox for More4.
