Inverness production company receives boost for new TV content
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INVERNESS-based TV production company Happy Tramp North is among the first recipients of a total of £900,500 from Screen Scotland’s £3 million broadcast content fund to create new TV content.
The awards represent a range of new projects, enabling Scottish independent TV production companies to elevate their creative and commercial ambition, through support of single project and slate development and production.
Open to all genres of broadcast content including factual and scripted programming, the broadcast content fund is central to Screen Scotland’s plan to increase the number and diversity of film and television productions from Scotland and build sustainability in the sector.
Happy Tramp North’s £500,000 funding is supporting the production of the new, Edinburgh set, four-part BBC crime drama series Guilt. The series will premiere on the new BBC Scotland channel.
Neil Webster, managing director at Happy Tramp North, said: “We’re over the moon to be one of the first recipients of Screen Scotland’s broadcast fund.
"Guilt is an ambitious, contemporary drama and the broadcast fund has been crucial in allowing us to bring the vision of the show to life. Screen Scotland’s understanding and help throughout the process has been invaluable and we hope this is the start of a long and fruitful relationship.”
Scotland's culture secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “Having met so many skilled individuals operating in Scotland, I know from first-hand experience that we have the talent and the opportunity to grow our TV sector.
“This funding of up to £500,000 per project will enrich our vibrant broadcast production sector by providing the targeted financial backing it needs to develop.
“It will also help attract, retain and develop talent and businesses in Scotland and I look forward to seeing the productions made possible by this enhanced funding.”
Isabel Davis, executive director at Screen Scotland, said: “Creating the right conditions for Scotland’s independent film and television producers and companies to grow is essential, if we are to help them achieve the recognition they deserve and drive their economic and creative success.
“We’ve been inspired by the quality and range of work coming to us for support, and encouraged that the fund is making a real difference: be it creating the opportunity for producers to acquire exciting intellectual property, increase the resources to develop content, or enable important Scottish stories of scale to get into production.”
The other independent production companies to receive funding are Edinburgh-based Pirate Productions, Stirling-based Once Were Farmers and Glasgow’s Maramedia, Matchlight and Very Nice.
