ITV seeks Britain’s top detective

EndeavourFormer BBC entertainment commissioner Sohail Shah’s new indie has picked up its debut greenlight – an ITV one-off profiling the best fictional crime-solvers of the last 60 years.

King of Sunshine Productions’ two-hour special will be put together following a public vote drawing on books, TV and film as people are given the opportunity to whittle down a list of the best 50 detectives from the likes of Sherlock to Vera and Inspectors Morse and Barnaby to a top 25.

Britain’s Favourite Detective will subsequently air later this year, using archive footage and edited remotely.

Former Graham Norton Show commissioning exec Shah, who set up Manchester-based King of Sunshine last year, is exec-producing, with Katie Rawcliffe and Joe Mace commissioning for ITV.

“Audiences love a murder mystery, and as our debut commission, I can’t think of anything better than seeing which super-sleuth the British public thinks is the best,” Shah told Broadcast.

He paid tribute to ITV for showing continued dedication to producing shows under Covid-19 lockdown, along with opting for a fully-regional indie over the “usual London suspects”.

King of Sunshine is pitching entertainment, factual entertainment, formats and children’s ideas to PSBs and streamers, and is informally collaborating on formats with former Objective chief Matt Crook’s label Crook Productions.

The indie is also one of nine producers recently selected by Channel 5 director of programmes Ben Frow for the broadcaster’s BAME production scheme.
 

This article first appeared on Broadcast. 

Endeavour image: ITV. 

 



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