Fortitude – a new chapter for Sky drama

Tonight I’m off to a premiere. All part and parcel of working at the best broadcaster in Europe. But tonight’s premiere is a special one for a number of reasons, and even though I’ve seen the show many times, I can’t wait.

Because tonight sees the world premiere of Sky’s original production Fortitude, an ambitious and genre-defining new 11-part drama on Sky Atlantic and a passion project of mine since it first came to me and Anne Mensah, our Head of Drama, back in 2013, from Patrick Spence at Fifty Fathoms. I knew it was something special as soon as I read it. So much so, that Anne and I commissioned it within 24 hours.

Fortitude is not just a great show; it represents a real step change for dramas at Sky with a quality, ambition and scale that sets it apart from what we’ve done before.  We’ve worked hard over the last few years to broaden out our offering to customers beyond our traditional strengths in movies, sport and news, including through increased investment in home-grown original production. It’s clear today that our content offering is larger, more diverse and of a higher quality than ever before.

For viewers, Fortitude will be a truly engrossing cinematic drama. Filmed over 23 weeks in Iceland (and a warehouse in Hayes!), Fortitude follows the impact of a murder on a close-knit community clinging to the edge of the Arctic Circle. The Times has already called it “one of the most anticipated TV shows of 2015”.  It’s got everything you’d expect from a big drama and more – incredible sets, an A-list cast that includes Stanley Tucci, Michael Gambon, Christopher Eccleston and Sofie Gråbøl, a stunner of a murder mystery plot, and polar bears.

It will be our first original programme to premiere simultaneously to 20 million customers in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria and Italy – the five markets Sky operates in since we created Europe’s leading entertainment company late last year. It’s a sign of the opportunity we have to commission dramas of scale that will work right across Europe.

We have also sold it to 13 major broadcasters around the world, a record for our international distribution arm, Sky Vision. This means an even bigger impact and greater returns. 

What’s important to us is that Fortitude is just one of a number of major new, original dramas that we’re bringing to screen in 2015. You can look forward to The Last Panthers, a crime drama starring Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahim and John Hurt; Critical, the new medical drama from Line of Duty writer Jed Mercurio; The Enfield Haunting starring Timothy Spall, Matthew MacFadyen and Juliet Stevenson; and Raymond Briggs’ much-loved classic Fungus the Bogeyman. There are also returning hits including gothic horror Penny Dreadful and hugely successful action series Strike Back.

So mark it in your diaries or set your Sky+ boxes now. The 29th January is set to be a game changer for all of us

Click here and have a sneak peak of Fortitude right now