LFF: Spotlight Conversation with Television Legend Jane Tranter

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Tranter had to break “everything she knew” when moving out to LA to literally start from scratch on American television, which she calls “completely different” from the world of British television. She discussed having to split her time between scripted drama – that she strongly implies is her favourite – and unscripted series such as Dancing with the Stars, the US reformat of Strictly Come Dancing. Though her work was undeniably successful, she eventually chose to leave the BBC in order to set up her own production company, Bad Wolf, which she calls “the natural progression” for many producers.

Responsible for both big-budget productions such as A Discovery of Witches and His Dark Materials, which Tranter says is “like making three shows at the same time”, as well as smaller character dramas such as the Billie Piper-led I Hate Suzie and new series Industry, Bad Wolf has become a force to be reckoned with. Due to Tranter’s previous connections, Bad Wolf has a first-look deal with HBO (who have taken everything the company has pitched to them), whilst she is delighted to continue a partnership with the BBC on some shows.

Read our review of I Hate Suzie here.

Aside from Bad Wolf, Tranter discussed her other recent producing work, most notably the critically acclaimed HBO series The Night Of, which took “two Obama presidencies, literally” to come to fruition, and her work as an Executive Producer on Succession – perhaps the most critically adored TV series since Fleabag.

Talking about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Tranter discussed how lucky Bad Wolf had been for the most part, with I Hate Suzie, Industry and A Discovery of Witches season two completing filming before the worst of the global crisis, leaving just a standalone episode of His Dark Materials, featuring James McAvoy as Lord Asriel (who does not appear in ‘The Subtle Knife’, the book on which the second series is based).

Originally slated as episode four of the new series, which would feature tie-ins to the rest of the series despite not featuring any of the other regular cast, the episode has now been shelved following a shutdown of production just a few days before the UK national lockdown, leaving the powers that be to repurpose what they did have for the series to create a fluid arc for the new seven-episode season (airing November 15th this year).

Adapting to the new normal is proving somewhat difficult, as production has to shut down for at least a day while every person involved is tested for COVID-19 if one person tests positive, while Tranter notes that Bad Wolf would have “gone out of business” had the pandemic occurred just a few years earlier due to the huge insurance costs of these production delays. A thinly-veiled dig at the government’s use of an Excel spreadsheet for their track-and-trace program concluded this part of the discussion, as Tranter noted the lack of assistance given to independent production companies despite government promises, but noted that Bad Wolf will continue on “hopefully”.

Tranter hopes that every show Bad Wolf creates and produces moving forward will further diversify the television landscape: “whatever your gender, whatever your race, whatever your physical or mental diversity or typicality, acceptance of each other is something that I’m drawn to in every story we do”, and notes she aims to balance this inclusive storytelling with diverse casting. After being told that there were no black librarians at the Bodleian Library in Oxford when casting for A Discovery of Witches, Tranter remarked “but there should be – if television can’t show the way the world should be, how is the world ever going to change?”.

Tranter remained tight-lipped on the upcoming projects she’ll be involved in, but said, cryptically, that “there’s some crazy stuff out there that I literally cannot wait to get dug into”, and promises that Bad Wolf’s next production will be an ever bigger beast than His Dark Materials. Covering everything from career progression to relevant topics such as the coronavirus pandemic and diversity on-screen, the London Film Festival’s conversation with Jane Tranter is a fascinating insight into the world of television production.

Words by James Nash

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