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Martin Freeman and Tony Schumacher – the star and creator respectively – join us this week to chat The Responder, which returns for its second series. Plus, we investigate some Tudor crimes with Shardlake and some cold war espionage with Spy/Master.

None of which can prepare you for what Boyd’s been watching this week, which not only sees a surprise sprint for the finish line with a show he’d been behind on, but a rather unexpected ‘factual’ show, that dovetails with this week’s listener question to see a podcast far more concerned about measurements than it has any right to be.

Listen to the episode on your podcast app of choice or the player above. And if you want to subscribe to Pilot TV+, find all the details here.

The BBC’s financial deficit is projected to reach nearly £500M next year as the corporation delivers what it has described as a “transformational budget.”

Unveiling its Annual Plan this afternoon, which sets priorities for the coming year, the BBC forecast a deficit of £492M ($620M) for 2024/25, a sharp rise of 40% from this year.

Explaining the hefty jump, the BBC said its plan to grow BBC Studios “drives higher income” and “requires significant investment in 24/25, contributing to the group operating deficit,” while pointing out that this year will also include big expenditure on sporting events such as the summer Olympics and European football championships.

“Our financial plan includes a transformative approach to savings to enable delivery of our strategic ambitions,” it went on. “This will require a number of difficult decisions over the course of the year including one-off transformational costs. Ultimately savings will help to deliver reinvestment in our...

BBC Buys HBO Max Thriller ‘Spy/Master’

The BBC has acquired HBO Max thriller Spy/Master as it continues to beef up its iPlayer offering. Acquired from Warner Bros. Discovery, the show stars Happy Valley’s Alec Secăreanu as the most trusted advisor to Romanian President Nicolae Ceaușescu. With his government poised to uncover that he’s a secret agent for the Soviets, Godeanu uses a diplomatic trip to Germany as a springboard to defect to the U.S. The series also stars Aidan McArdle, Ana Ularu (Who Is Erin Carter?), Laurențiu Bănescu (Boss), Andreea Vasile (Umbre), Nico Mirallegro (Our Girl), lulian Postelnicu (Arest) and Elvira Deatcu (Clanul). “A classic spy drama set at the height of the Cold War, Spy/Master is an atmospheric, complex thriller, dripping with style and suspense,” said Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition. The show was nominated for the inaugural...

Suits’ Patrick J. Adams and Unbelievable’s Merritt Wever are confirmed to star in BBC and Netflix’s Lockerbie series. Filming is now underway in Scotland on the six-episode series based on the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am flight.

Connor Swindells (Sas Rogue Heroes), Peter Mullan (Ozark), Tony Curran (Mary & George), Eddie Marsan (Ridley Road), Lauren Lyle (Vigil), Andrew Rothney (The Undeclared War), Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey), Parker Sawyers (Spy/Master), James Harkness (The Sixth Commandment), Khalid Laith (Cobra), and Amanda Drew (Wolf) were also just announced as starring in the drama.

“On 21 December 1988, flight Pan Am 103 was en route from Heathrow to JFK when a bomb exploded in its hold over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people, including 43 British citizens and 190 Americans. It was the worst-ever terror attack on British soil and the first major one on US citizens,” reads BBC and Netflix’s synopsis. “Lockerbie will focus...

Suits star Patrick J. Adams, Connor Swindells (Sex Education, Sas Rogue Heroes), Merritt Wever (Unbelievable, Godless) and Eddie Marsan (Ridley Road, The Pact) are part of the the cast of the upcoming six-episode series Lockerbie, about the December 1988 terrorist attack on Pan Am Flight 103, for the BBC and Netflix.

Further castmembers unveiled Tuesday include Peter Mullan (Ozark, Payback), Tony Curran (Mary & George, Mayflies), Lauren Lyle (Karen Pirie, Vigil), Andrew Rothney (The Undeclared War, Traces), Phyllis Logan (Downton Abbey, Guilt), Parker Sawyers (Spy/Master, P-Valley), James Harkness (The Sixth Commandment, The Victim), Khalid Laith (Vigil, Cobra) and Amanda Drew (The Gold, Wolf).

The BBC and Netflix didn’t detail what roles each castmember will play, but said that filming on the show, described as a “factual drama” made by ITV Studios banner World Productions, has begun in Scotland.

“The six-part series is based on the real events surrounding the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and the joint Scottish-u.

Former HBO Europe execs Johnathan Young and Ioanina Pavel have resurfaced with their own indie.

The pair have launched May One, which will be based in Bucharest, Romania — one of the former homes of HBO Europe. They are out of the gate with Subteran, a Netflix series announced last October that is produced alongside Tudor Rue from Mobra Films and now filming.

May One will seek to develop, produce and provide creative partnership for quality series shot in Romania, working with established and new talent from both within and outside the country. The company will look to open up Romanian resources and talent to the international industry to create collaborations in Europe and beyond.

In that sense, it harks back to HBO Europe’s ethos, which sought to bring together Central Eastern European talent with others from Western Europe and the U.S. It was considered one of the key international producers in the region,...

Former HBO Europe executives Jonathan Young and Ioannina Pavel have launched a new production company, May One, aiming to develop and produce high-end TV drama in Romania for local and international audiences.

The veteran TV execs have been involved in several high-profile HBO productions shot in Eastern Europe, including the award-winning Polish series Wataha (The Pack), the Romanian-German

thriller Hackerville and HBO Max’s Cold War espionage drama Spy/Master, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year.

Spy/Master

As vp original production at HBO Europe, Young oversaw HBO’s slate of original local language series in the region. Pavel began as a development executive at HBO Romania, working on such series as the gangster drama Umbre and Hackerville, before going on to produce a variety of shows, from the romantic drama Ruxx to Spy/Master.

May One will be based in Bucharest and plans to develop, produce and co-produce high-end series to shoot in Romania,...

Award-winning horror writer-director Christopher Smith will direct concept horror comedy “Spider Island.”

Written by Christopher Jolley (“The Price We Pay”) and David Quantick (“Veep”), the film will follow a group of social media influencers going to the launch party of a new luxury resort on a beautiful island – one that is infested with deadly spiders.

Smith has won awards at Neuchatel for “Detour” and “Black Death” and at Bucheon for “Severance.” Most recently he directed HBO series “Spy/Master.”

The U.K.’s Vertigo Films will produce the film. Protagonist Pictures is handling worldwide rights, launching sales ahead of the upcoming American Film Market. Automatik VFX will handle visual effects with Seb Barker (“The Wheel of Time”) serving as VFX supervisor.

Production is set to begin in early 2024 in Mauritius. The film will feature a multinational cast.

Smith said: “For a while now, I’ve been searching for the perfect project...

Amid turbulent times for global streaming services who continue to course correct after years of pursuing subscriber growth at all costs, TV writers and producers in Eastern Europe are pondering the next step for a region still searching for its first international breakout hit.

“The biggest challenge is the great Netflix correction — the recalibration, the reassessment of dollars,” Ioanina Pavel, who served as creative producer on the HBO Max original series “Spy/Master,” said Friday at the Transilvania Film Festival. “It’s not a bad thing, but it is a challenge. There’s been a glut. The Golden Age of TV is now coming to a close. It’s not a bad thing; it just means a reallocation of money.”

“Spy/Master,” a six-part drama series set during the Cold War that dropped its final episode last week, is one of the last productions from Central and Eastern Europe for Max, after...

Spy/Master will be ending with a bang. Or at least that’s how it seems. A bomb in a Bonn synagogue, not a church, is sure to affect the Camp David peace talks. This will, in turn, affect President Carter’s decision to allow Victor’s defection. It is imperative that Frank find the bomb, or else Victor’s death will be inevitable, and what’s worse, so will the death of his daughter Ileana. The latter is something that President Ceausescu’s wife, Elena, desperately wants: to make Victor pay for his betrayal. Her words almost make her the Lady Macbeth to Nicolae’s Macbeth. He may be the king, but it is his queen who makes the crucial decision. On the other hand, a group of undercover agents, under orders from Carmen and Mircea, have made their way inside the American Embassy to take down Victor. Meanwhile,...

If you are a secret agent, there is a risk that your loved ones face. This doesn’t necessarily mean their deaths, but the torture they are made to undergo to pry out whatever they know of the person in question is terrifying. After the events of Spy/Master episode 4, Ileana and her mother are under 24-hour supervision by the Romanian government. Meanwhile, Victor still hasn’t received his green light from President Carter. And to add to the chaos, there is the rumor of a bomb making rounds somewhere with the aim of disrupting the Camp David peace talks. Victor has to remove not only himself but his daughter as well. Will he be successful? He will have to hurry because Mircea and Carmen are planning to take him down. This is Episode 5 of Spy/Master.

Spoilers Ahead

Activation

Under President Nicolae Ceausescu’s wife Elena’s orders, Ileana is being...

Warner Bros. Discovery’s (Wbd) Jamie Cooke is supercharging “original documentaries that push the boundaries” from his Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Turkey region by greenlighting around 10 docs per year.

Cooke took charge of the vast territory following the WarnerMedia/Discovery mega-merger and was speaking to Deadline prior to a Nem keynote as he nears one year in post.

While Wbd is taking a light-touch approach to ordering original content from the region, especially prior to the launch of the rebranded Max streamer, Cooke said it is documentaries where he is most looking to make an impact.

“Pushing the boundaries and shining a light on topics that are challenging is really important for me,” he told Deadline. “We need to be measured and cautious in the investments we are making right now and the focus for me is really on the docs side.”

The Discovery vet, who is...

If an agent defecting wasn’t enough, now there is a possibility of an imminent attack in Romania. Episode 4 of Spy/Master shows the ripples that are formed as a result of Victor’s defection. The Romanian intelligence, the Germans, and the Americans are all involved in it, and all are freaked out. On the other hand, there is the explosion that only Ingrid’s maid, Safiya, knows about. How long will it take before the authorities find out about the explosion?

Spoilers Ahead

Welcome

Victor is brought to the American Embassy (probably) in Germany, or some hidden base, where he finds his daughter’s picture missing. But that’s apparently not of any importance now, as it is doubtful whether he will see Ileana again. However, if the photo is found inside the jacket that was recovered from the Rhine by the police, they might arrive at his house. But...

From a key in a bar of soap to a note in a cigarette case to a passport in the Rhine, Episode 3 of Spy/Master hits the Nos on the plotline. This episode picks up from the events of two days ago when we saw Victor and Frank inside the church. The events taking place in the present will probably resume in the next episode. In this one, Victor’s profession gives him a run for his money. Will he manage to escape? If yes, then at what cost?

Spoilers Ahead

The Unsafe Safehouse

Frank brings Victor to a safe house and introduces him to his very familiar-looking 27-year-old lookout, John Miller. The apartment is his. The building should have been empty if not for an old lady who lives on the ground floor. Victor has to remain hidden until Frank gets the green light from Scott to bring him in.

Exclusive: Berlinale Series Head Julia Fidel is exiting after four years in post.

Fidel has been working with the Berlinale for almost two decades. Under her watch, the Berlinale Series – the Berlin Film Festival’s TV sibling – has grown rapidly.

The Series issued its first Award last year in collaboration with Deadline, has launched a market-skewing Series Market Selects strand, worked with top talent and expanded to showcase content from regions such as Latin America and China.

Shows to have been in competition in recent years include HBO Max’s Lust, Netflix’s The Eddy and Jason Segel’s AMC series Dispatches From Elsewhere, while Frank Doelger’s The Swarm played out of competition earlier this year.

The first Berlinale Series Award, meanwhile, was won by Disney+ Italy’s The Good Mothers, beating off competition from the likes of HBO Max’s Spy/Master and Chinese drama Why Try to Change Me Now.

Spy/Master tells the story of Victor Godeanu, the fictional aide of real former Romanian president Nicolae Ceaușescu. A Kgb mole, Victor has been selling secrets to the Russians for 15 years until now. Roman counterintelligence gets the scent of his acts. With them on his tail, he has to find a way to get out of Romania and decides to defect to America. It is a race against time for him. Will he be able to take his family and move to America, or will the Romanians find him and bring him to justice? Let’s find out.

Spoilers Ahead

A Mole Defect

In Bucharest, Romania, Victor Godeanu, the personal security advisor of Romanian president Nicolae Ceausescu and Deputy Chief of Romania’s foreign intelligence service, realizes that someone [a bald guy] is following him as he gets onto a train to Bonn, West Germany. He arrives at the American Embassy in Bonn to...

HBO Max will officially be replaced by Warner Bros. Discovery on May 23 with a new and improved service called Max. However, that doesn’t mean the service is scrimping on content until then. One of the biggest new releases of the month is the new limited series “White House Plumbers,” which will premiere on May 1. Starring Woody Harrelson as E. Howard Hunt and Justin Theroux as G. Gordon Liddy, the pair portray two real-life Watergate burglars and Nixon saboteurs who ended up destroying the very president they desperately wanted to serve.

Check out the “White House Plumbers” trailer:

The platform will head to the pitch on May 16 with a three-part soccer docuseries “Angel City.” The series goes behind the scenes with the groundbreaking Los Angeles-based professional women’s soccer team, Angel City Football Club. It reveals the origin story through the 2022 inaugural season of the female-founded and led team — including owners and investors Uzo Aduba,...

HBO Max will add several exciting new TV show premieres and movies to its catalog in May 2023 before being rebranded as “Max.” After launching in 2020 as the primary streaming home for Warner Bros – now Warner Bros. Discovery – titles, HBO Max is officially losing the first half of its name in a rebranding come May 23. After this point, the streaming service will be launched as Max, which will also come with some changes to subscription tiers. Nevertheless, HBO Max will still be releasing new hit titles between May 1 and 22 under the original brand, which includes the premiere of a highly anticipated HBO miniseries and the arrival of classic film franchises.

The biggest upcoming release on HBO Max in May 2023 is the series premiere of the satirical political drama miniseries White House Plumbers on May 1, which stars Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux. The month also brings new episodes of Succession season 4 to HBO Max,...

Max Original international series Spy/Master debuts Friday, May 19 with the first two episodes, which had their world premiere at Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Series in February. Created by Adina Sădeanu and Kirsten Peters, the six-part espionage drama series starring Alec Secăreanu continues with one new episode debuting weekly leading up to the season finale on June 16.

Logline: Spy/Master is set during the height of the Cold War and covers a week in the life of fictional character Victor Godeanu, played by Secăreanu, the right-hand man and closest advisor to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. However, Godeanu is also a secret agent for the Kgb and must escape Romania and Ceaușescu before his cover is blown. With only one shot at staying alive, he uses a diplomatic trip to Germany as a springboard to the United States. Helped by an undercover Stasi agent and former flame played by Svenja Jung (“Deutschland...

HBO Max’s period drama “Spy/Master” is more John le Carré than Ian Fleming, state its creators. Following Victor Godeanu, a high-ranking officer in Romania’s secret service, advisor to president Nicolae Ceaușescu – and a spy – who decides to defect in 1978.

“As a child, I used to watch James Bond, which is a very cartoony version of espionage. It was something we really wanted to avoid. We wanted it to feel real,” says Kirsten Peters.

Adina Sădeanu adds: “John le Carré’s novels, for example ‘A Perfect Spy,’ are so complex. These characters run away from their own humanity. I have always wondered: How do they live? How do they wake up in the morning, after saying so many lies?”

For Sădeanu, her journalistic background – as well as Romanian roots – came in handy as well.

“Over the years, I met many people working in intelligence. They weren’t these ‘James Bond’ types,...

The Berlin Festival’s ever larger three-day Berlinale Series Market kicks off today, Feb. 20. Below just a small selection of the series screening at the Market or in Berlinale Series, the festival strand. The selection could have been much larger.

About Antoine

Berlinale Series Market Selects

Canada

Creator: Cathleen Rouleau

Production company: ComediHa!

Broadcaster: Club illico, Tva (Quebecor)

An insight into the life of a family with all the quirks, highs and lows it entails, tackling a rarely explored theme in fiction: Life with a multi-handicapped child.

Rouleau: “I didn’t want to write a gut-wrenching story. A good show is wrapped in truth. It doesn’t matter if the hero spits fire from his mouth, as long as he is true to himself.”

Agent

Berlinale Series

Denmark

Creator, director: Nikolaj Lie Kaas

Production company: Zentropa Productions2

Broadcaster: TV2

Johan’s job is to solve his clients’ problems. Chronically overstretched,...

Berlinale Series, established in 2015, keeps offering new shows proper cinema treatment. But it’s not just about that “dark room and the level of concentration you hardly get when you sit on a sofa,” explains head of the event Julia Fidel, noting a surge in stories with a “reasonable” budget.

“We want to screen very different episodic narrative styles from any country in the world. There is this expectation of showcasing ‘blockbuster’ series, which we also include, but the real benefit of [having] a series section at a major festival are the discoveries.”

Such as Market Selects’ Israeli offering “Traitor.” “If the story is outstanding and the characters relatable, the language doesn’t matter,” state showrunners Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen.

“Good shows have to be meaningful,” states Cristina Iliescu, creator- director of Co-Pro Series title “Export Only,” the first foray into series by “Bad Luck Banging” producer Ada Solomon.

Berlinale Series head Julia Fidel reflects on this year’s selection.

Back in 2015, Berlin became the first A list festival to launch a strand for high-end TV shows, acknowledging changing viewing patterns and the growth of long-form storytelling.

A festival within a festival, Berlinale Series has since become a microcosm of the competitive world of high-end TV shows, where key trends shaping the sector can be observed.

This year’s eight-strong selection, for example, has a raft of streamer titles jostling for attention – from HBO Max’s Cold War thriller Spy/Master to Disney Plus’s mafia tale The Good Mothers,...