Killing Eve indie Sid Gentle Films, part of BBC Studios, is opening a new office in Bristol, Sid Wild, based at The Bottle Yard Studios.
The first production to film under the Sid Wild arm is Rain Dogs, which recently wrapped on its Bristol based shoot. From the voice of Cash Carraway, Rain Dogs is an unconventional love story between a working class single mum, her 10 year old daughter, and a privileged gay man.
The dark comedy stars Daisy May Cooper, Jack Farthing, Ronke Adekoluejo, Adrian Edmondson and Fleur Tashjian, in her debut role, as a dysfunctional, unconventional family on the fringes of society, attempting to go straight in a crooked world. Rain Dogs is a BBC/HBO co-production.
Ciara McIlvenny, who produced Rain Dogs, has joined the company as development producer. She will be developing her own slate of shows in close collaboration with Henrietta Colvin, Sally Woodward Gentle and Lee Morris with the intention that those shows will be produced out of Bristol.
McIlvenny has over 20 years’ experience in scripted drama. Before producing Rain Dogs she was story producer on Bad Sisters written by Sharon Horgan for Merman and Apple TV and script executive on Channel Five’s remake of All Creatures Great and Small. She has worked on shows including Baptiste (Jack and Harry Williams) for Two Brothers, Selection Day (Marston Bloom) for 7stories and Netflix, The Smoke (Lucy Kirkwood) for Kudos, Wild at Heart and Ghost Squad for Company Pictures and Murphy’s Law for Tiger Aspect.
She also produced seasons two and three of Raw, created and written by Lisa McGee, for Ecosse Films and RTE in Ireland and cut her teeth on long running shows Casualty (BBC) and The Bill (ITV and Talkback Thames.)
Sally Woodward Gentle and Lee Morris, Sid Gentle Films, said; “We want to make Sid Wild a significant presence and one which not only produces brilliant shows which are enjoyed around the world but also delivers genuine investment outside of London. Ciara is an exceptional talent – creative, clever, patient and highly skilled with an incredible and life-saving sense of humour.”
McIlvenny said; “We had some brilliant West Country crew on Rain Dogs and I’m looking forward to building on those relationships and discovering new talent to help create exciting shows out of Bristol.”
Sid Gentle Films is majority owned by BBC Studios and part of its multi-award winning portfolio of invested indie production companies.
The largest production facility in the West of England, Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios opens its new £12m TBY2 facility this Autumn, increasing its total number of stages to 11. Sid Wild joins a creative community of more than 20 businesses based on site at the Studios. Earlier this week, Bristol Film Office confirmed that film and high-end TV productions filmed at The Bottle Yard and on location in Bristol generated £20.8m towards Bristol’s economy in the 2021-22 financial year, the highest recorded total in a decade.
Pippa Considine
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