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EXCLUSIVE: “For the first time in my career, I’m genuinely excited and enthusiastic about a work of mine…one that I own, and believe could work marvelously in a different medium…being adapted for the screen,” Watchmen author Alan Moore says in a rare quote about his new fantasy novel, The Great When, getting a TV adaptation. In a competitive bidding situation, Colin Callender‘s production company Playground has landed the rights to the book by the famous graphic novelist, which was published Oct. 1 by Bloomsbury. The Great When is the first in Moore’s planned five-volume Long London series of epic fantasy novels that Playground plans to adapt into a tentpole, multi-season event series.
It is part of the company’s pivot from its early focus on TV movies and miniseries based on big IP like Wolf Hall and King Lear, designed to attract big stars like Anthony Hopkins and Mark Rylance, to ongoing series. Playground has six current series — a record for the 12-year-old company. All but one of them, the second installment of Wolf Hall, currently airing on BBC, are intended to be returning. That includes flagship All Creatures Great and Small, currently in pre-production on Season 6 for Channel 5 and PBS Masterpiece, on which Callender says “we have a commitment to go to eight seasons”; The Hardacres (Channel 5) and the upcoming Small Town, Big Story (Sky), Lynley (BBC, Britbox) and Maigret (PBS Masterpiece).
Known mainly for British period dramas, Playground is expanding into new genres with Chris O’Dowd’s Small Town, Big Story, its first comedy series, and The Great When, its first fantasy series. The latter has a strong British period element.
In it, amidst the smog of post-WWII London emerges Dennis Knuckleyard, a young clerk employed by a second-hand bookshop. One day, on an errand to acquire books for sale, Dennis comes into the possession of a novel that simply does not exist. It is a fictitious book from the Great When, a nightmarish, imaginary realm that is the supernatural counterpart to the city Dennis calls home. Dennis has to return the book or get killed. Soon he finds himself at the center of an explosive series of events, navigating a new realm of criminals, artists and occult figures that puts his life at risk and may alter and endanger both Londons forever…
“Alan Moore’s The Great When is an extraordinary work of imagination, combining elements of history, fantasy, and mystery to create a world that is both epic and intimate, strange yet deeply human,” said David Stern, Joint Managing Director of Playground, who has been the driving force behind the effort to secure the rights. “This project represents the type of storytelling we at Playground are passionate about, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with Alan, one of the most influential writers of our time, to bring this remarkable work to television.”
Moore’s work has consistently been sought-after for screen adaptations, with high-profile series and feature productions including From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, V for Vendetta and HBO’s Watchmen, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series. Moore has been critical of a number of them, done without his consent as DC Comics controls the rights to his most famous comics, but he is fully onboard, “excited and enthusiastic” about collaborating with Playground on The Great When TV series.
“In Playground, I feel that I’ve connected with people who respect both me and the narrative and are receptive to such input as I can offer,” he said. “And, given Playground’s track record, I have little doubt that this will be anything short of spectacular. It’s taken me some time, but I think at last I’m ready for my closeup.”
Playground landed the rights to The Great When competing against a slew of other suitors. “We did take a big swing with this, really, we wrote a big check to get this,” Callender said.
Talks are already underway with writers for the adaptation. While only the first book has been published, “the roadmap is completely laid out,” with Moore working on the rest of the novels, Stern said.
Playground’s Dual UK-US identity
Callender had a front-row seat to the changing TV landscapes both in the UK as producer of then-fledgling Channel 4’s first commission, the 1982 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, and as a top executive at HBO during its ascend to a premium programming standard. The experience informed his strategy with Playground.
“When I left HBO, it was clear that some of the old paradigms that existed were maybe out of date,” he said. “There were UK production companies, there were U.S. production companies. We thought we could be a production company that had a foot in both markets, that speaks both languages.”
Besides reflecting his own dual identity — London-born, New York-based Callender admits he is not sure anymore whether he is British or American — “that sort of approach to setting up Playground has allowed us to be nimble and to own our own shows,” he said.
Retaining ownership has been key to the strategy of the company, which has employed a co-production model from the start for its TV movies and miniseries.
“At some point, we decided we wanted to expand our slate to produce returning series, but to do it in the same way, to do it in the manner that allowed us to retain all those rights so that we could build some value in the company,” Callender said. “There obviously will be times when that doesn’t happen, when the financing on a project requires us not to own it, but the fundamental strategy of the company is to co-produce between the UK and the U.S. in a way that allows us to own our shows and build the value of the company. That’s part of the DNA of who we are.”
Because of that focus on ownership, Playground is yet to produce a series for a streamer like Netflix, Amazon and Apple, which require relinquishing global rights. (The company has occasionally licensed programming, like All Creatures Big and Small, which is carried by Netflix in England in addition to its linear run on Channel 5.)
Would Playground ever do a show for a global streamer? “Absolutely, absolutely, it’s possible,” Callender said.
Comedy Play
Playground’s expansion into comedy was spearheaded by Playground’s Joint Managing Director Scott Huff, a former comedian who was still moonlighting as a standup after he had started working for Callender at the company’s inception 15 years ago. (Both Huff and Stern are American.)
Leaning into Playground’s dual UK-U.S. market focus, the company went with well known creative talent on both sides of the pond for its first comedy series, Chris O’Dowd. They approached him with “seedling of an idea that he took and ran with,” which resulted in Small Town, Big Story, the first series O’Dowd has written and directed since his acclaimed 2012 Sky comedy Moone Boy.
Starring established UK (Paddy Considine) and U.S. (Christina Hendricks) actors, with O’Dowd in a featured role, Small Town, Big Story is a comedy-drama with a light genre element that follows what happens when a local girl made good as a Hollywood producer returns to her small Irish village with a television series in tow and threatens to expose a decades-old secret she shares with the town’s local doctor.
Huff likens the series to “early Amblin movies where there was a genre element but it’s ultimately a human story about family and about community and about identity.”
Small Town, Big Story, slated for a Sky debut in early 2025, is close to finding a U.S. home. “There are three ongoing conversations, all with streamers at the moment,” Huff said.
Also seeking U.S. distribution (as well as having renewal conversations), is The Hardacres, an adaptation of the best-selling novels by C.L. Skelton, described as Beverly Hillbillies meets Downton Abbey, .
‘Wolf Hall’ Return
After almost a decade off, Wolf Hall, which helped put Playground on the map, is back for a second installment on BBC, returning to similarly strong reviews as the original as well as more than 4M viewers for the premiere, also in line with the original January-February 2015 run despite a far more fragmented TV landscape. (That number is expected to go up.)
“I think that for me, the reception of Wolf Hall in the UK is an example of the fact that there are certain sorts of genres that the audience comes back to time and time again,” he said. “I know there’s a preconception against period drama, but suddenly Shōgun wins a gazillion Emmys. I think that audiences want to be transported somewhere else, particularly in the world we live in now, and I think Wolf Hall does that.”
Callender also sees an upside in having a decade-long gap between the two parts of the Tudor drama. “It’s very interesting to have [stars] Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis come back 10 years later and play the roles again,” he said. “What both actors have experienced in the interim has informed their performances and added depth and nuance to their performances, which I think is captivating.”
PBS Masterpiece relationship
PBS Masterpiece is Playground’s U.S. partner on Wolf Hall as well as a significant chunk of the company’s output over the years – including half of its current six series — even as the American TV marketplace has evolved. Practically the only destination for period British drama in the U.S. a decade ago, Masterpiece is now joined in the space by streamers with shows like Netflix’s The Crown and Bridgerton.
“When you co-produce, you want to make sure that your partners are compatible, and Masterpiece and the BBC are very compatible, have very similar tastes and ways of doing business,” Callender said. “We have a very strong relationship with them, and, even though there are more buyers for British shows, there’s a certain sort of particular period drama that I think only they will buy.”
US origin story
In addition to Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light and All Creatures Great and Small, the third current Playground series with PBS Masterpiece is the upcoming Maigret, the first contemporary adaptation of Georges Simenon’s novels about the imperturbable, pipe-smoking Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret.
The series, which just completed shooting in Budapest, was financed by Masterpiece and Banijay and set to premiere in the U.S. in fall 2025. Conversations with UK outlets are ongoing.
While still tapping into the symbiotic UK-U.S. relations Playground was built on, this is a reverse strategy than what the company has mostly been known for – setting up a series with a British broadcaster and then selling it in the U.S.
Actually, two of Playground’s current six series originated with a U.S. distributor – a first for the company.
The other is Lynley, a contemporary adaptation of the best-selling detective novels by Elizabeth George. It was commissioned by U.S.’s Britbox and will also premiere on the BBC in fall 2025.
Consolidation & rising costs
Playground co-production model, still largely driven by UK-first series orders, may have helped somewhat insulate the company from the ongoing U.S. industry contraction, which was exacerbated by last year’s Hollywood strikes, with the volume of sales and greenlights taking a hit.
“It’s very easy to get bogged down or distracted by the headlines of consolidation and how hard it is out there,” Stern said, noting that the Playground team relies on relationships, market knowledge and going “after things that we believe that have a really good chance of selling” to navigate the rough waters.
One thing Playground has not been immune to — the rising costs of production. The company’s series are filmed in the UK where the influx of U.S. streamers has driven prices up.
“In the UK, what has happened is that production costs have increased considerably for a whole host of reasons, but the tariffs that are being paid to finance shows haven’t increased at the same rate, Callender said, calling the dislocation a challenge for British producers.
“We’re not feeling the pressure of contraction, clearly at the moment, we’re expanding,” he said about Playground, noting the company’s ability “to produce cost effectively.”
“Certainly producing at a price has become more and more important, and the realization that successful shows don’t necessarily need to cost a fortune, and the size of the budget and the success of a show are not necessarily correlated,” he said.
Streamers & opportunities
Callender has been critical of U.S. streamers’ impact on the UK television business, in 2020 calling their all-rights business model “terrible for the British independent producer” and a potential “time bomb” that “could explode” without warning, with British producers and broadcasters potentially caught in the fallout.
He points to series like Apple TV+’s Slow Horses as an example that “there are a whole bunch of shows that the streamers are doing out of the UK which are quite wonderful” before adding, “But as you know, I’m a very strong proponent of protecting the BBC as a public service broadcaster, protecting Channel 4. As long as that is protected, I think that the work of commercial television, streamers and the public service broadcasters can live side by side, and I think there’s an appetite from the audience point of view for the sorts of shows that each of those platforms provide.”
In fact, “as long as the platforms can live side by side and not cannibalize each other, I think it just creates a more competitive and exciting market,” Callender said, listing Playground as a beneficiary of that with its six series in production.
Some of that stems directly from the rise of streamers.
“Global linear broadcasters have relied for years on American scripted returning series, but now that the majority of those scripted series are being produced by the streamers, they’re not available to those linear, traditional broadcasters, and so there is an appetite for English-language one-hour scripted dramas, returners that can’t be met in quite the same way by American shows,” Callender said, acknowledging that ad-supported linear networks in the UK, like their U.S. counterparts,”are having a tough time.”
He pointed to interest he said the company has received for shows like Maigret, Lynley, The Hardacres and Creatures. “They’re filling a void that has been created by the streamers with the more traditional broadcasters,” Callender said. “The streamers themselves are evolving, and the streamers’ business models themselves are evolving, and I think that provides opportunities.”
