We are a television, film and radio production company making comedy, drama and animated programmes for UK networks and the international market. We work with some of the most exciting established and emerging writing talent in the UK.
Coming soon to BBC Radio 4, MUCKING IN, the new comedy from Sue Limb and Betsy Vriend about trying to make a living and a life out of farming. Starring Alison Steadman, Nigel Planer, Morwenna Banks and Tony Gardner. Starts Friday July 22 at 1130am.
Series 2 of Skeletons in the Cupboard by Sue Limb has just been commissioned and will be broadcast in 2021.
Produced and directed by Jamie Rix, it will star Alison Steadman, Morwenna Banks and Nigel Planer.
Released from the controlling influence of David, Maureen and Lesley flee to France where they rent a farmhouse in Limousin and settle down to enjoy their newfound freedom. But they quickly discover that guilt is not easily brushed under the carpet…
Judy, the short film written and directed by Matthew Dunster and starring Maxine Peake, has been selected to screen at Manchester Film Festival in March!
We’re thrilled to announce that BBC Radio 4 has commissioned Series 1 of a new 4 x 30 minute comedy drama by Sue Limb.
Starring Alison Steadman, Morwenna Banks and Nigel Planer, Skeletons in the Cupboard is a tale of two sisters.
Maureen and Lesley are in their sixties. Their even more aged mother has recently died. Lesley moved back into the old family home to act as carer some years ago. Now the older and more sensible sister, Maureen, wants the house cleared out and put on the market so she can have her share. She has retired from being a Headmistress, her marriage is on the rocks and she longs to sell her London house and downsize.
Lesley has wanted to bring Maureen down to size her whole life. The older sister, with her degree, her literary enthusiasms, her high-flying job, has always irritated the younger.
And then there’s David, who forces his way into their lives and irritates both of them.
Skeletons in the Cupboard will broadcast in the autumn.
We are now in production on the fifth series of Sue Limb’s Gloomsbury.
More details to follow soon.
We are now in production on Byron and the Curse of Sintra for BBC Radio 4.
Lord Byron and the Curse of Sintra follows the amorous adventures of the flamboyant Romantic poet -known as much for his work as his scandalous aristocratic excesses - as he hides from jealous husbands in a guesthouse in Portugal. It will star Stephen Mangan as Byron, Alison Steadman as Queen of Portugal, Kevin Eldon as Collins, Jolyon Coy as Lord Squeaky, Nigel Planer as King of Portugal and Morwenna Banks as Infanta.
We are now in production on the fourth series of Gloomsbury by Sue Limb for BBC Radio 4.
Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman, Morwenna Banks, Jonathan Coy, John Sessions and Nigel Planer return for a new series of adulterous adventures in Gloomsbury, the riotous six-part comedy that parodies the infamous goings-on of the Bloomsbury group.
All 3 series of Sue Limb’s highly-acclaimed comedy about the loves and lives of the Bloomsbury set are available now on CD or as a download.
We are delighted to announce that the winners of LBBO III are Gareth Jandrell and Alison Carr.
We look forward very much to developing original ideas of theirs with them in the coming months.
A final thank you to all writers who submitted their work for our consideration. It has been a pleasure to consider so many diverse and high quality stories.
We look forward to announcing details of new initiatives in the future.
We are delighted to announce that the following writers have made it on to the short list for LBBO III:
Alison Carr
Ben Ellis
Gareth Jandrell
Benjamin Latcham
Louise Monaghan
Once again, a huge thank you to all writers who submitted their work for our consideration. Having received over 500 high quality submissions, it has been both a real challenge to identify just 5 writers, and a real pleasure to read so much exciting, original work.
We will announce the winner of LBBO III in the coming weeks.
We were joined in the recording studio last week by Jennifer Robertson of Kyte Photography, who captured the team at work…
Thank you to all writers who submitted their work for our consideration. It has been a pleasure to read so many diverse and compelling stories.
We are delighted to announce that the following writers have made it on to the long-list for LBBO III:
Benjamin Latcham
Alice Charles
Paula B Stanic
Gabriel Robertson
Tom Wentworth
Rose Lewenstein
Elizabeth Adlington
Rob Young
Chris Wilson
Louise Monaghan
Adam Barnard
Ben Ellis
Claudine Toutoungi
Kieran Lynn
Sally Rogers
Gareth Jandrell
Ann Hawker
Sarah Grochala
Anne Frazer
Rhiannon Tise
Tom Harvey
Deirdre Kinahan
Miles Mantle
Alison Carr
John Hickman
Ella Carmen Greenhill
Olivia Hirst
Rick Briggs
We aim to announce our short-list in the coming weeks.
On Saturday September 6 Grizzly Tales For Gruesome Kids - those iconic cautionary tales for lovers of squeam - return to CiTV where it all started fourteen years ago. It’s always nice to go away, but even nicer to come home.
Following the success of our 2010 & 2012 initiatives, we are once again offering a talented writer £1000 to develop an original television drama idea of theirs through to treatment with us.
We are committed to championing and supporting new writing talent, and continue to develop original drama projects for television with some of the brightest emerging writers in the UK. Little Brother’s Big Opportunity III is an endeavour to discover further new writing talent, and to develop with them compelling, original drama.
To be eligible, writers must have had one piece of their work professionally produced or, at the very least, have had a professional reading of their work. Writers who have contributed episodes to UK television series or serials (e.g. a long running soap) are eligible to apply, but writers who have already had an original single, series or serial broadcast on UK television are not eligible to enter. No prior writing experience for television is required.
To apply, writers must submit their writing CV and the piece of their work of which they are most proud, that best demonstrates their talent (this could be a stage play, a radio play or a screenplay) to:
Little Brother’s Big Opportunity III
Little Brother Productions
Temple Works,
Brett Passage,
London, E8 1JR
The deadline for submissions is October 3rd 2014.
The winner will be announced on this website in early 2015.
Please note that all applications must be sent by post and that unless a stamped, addressed envelope is included, work will not be returned.
We are delighted to announce that Gloomsbury by Sue Limb has been commissioned for a third series to broadcast in 2015.
We hope to release a CD of Series 1, 2 and 3 following transmission of Series 3 next year.
Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman, Morwenna Banks, Jonathan Coy and John Sessions are back to breathe life into the dreadfully droll characters of Gloomsbury as a second series of the riotous comedy about the Bloomsbury Group returns to BBC Radio 4 from April. And joining them is the late Roger Lloyd-Pack, who stepped up to the mike before his sad death earlier this year, to play long-suffering husband Lionel Fox and amorous gardener Gosling.
Transmitted last Autumn to critical acclaim, Gloomsbury is written by Sue Limb, and is an affectionate send up of the infamous literary group whose arty and adulterous adventures dominated the cultural scene in the early 20th century. This second series continues to follow the fortunes of Vera Sackcloth-Vest (Margolyes), writer, gardener and transvestite, and her amorous antics among her close-knit coterie of writers, poets and artists.
Vera shares a bijou castle in Kent with her devoted husband Henry, but longs for exotic adventures with nervy novelist Ginny Fox (Steadman) and wilful beauty Venus Traduces (Banks). It may be 1921 – the dawn of modern love, life and lingerie – but Vera still hasn’t learnt how to boil a kettle.
Says Miriam Margolyes: “The first series was met with hysteria and delight from everybody and I’m 100% thrilled to be back playing Vera amongst this extraordinary cast. Vera is great fun to play because she’s a fount of sexuality and desire and simply doesn’t care how much sex is involved!”
Alison Steadman adds: “I look forward to every moment of the recording of Gloomsbury. It’s enormous fun to be playing someone posh – I certainly wouldn’t be given the chance to play something this posh on television!”
Affairs and attachments abound once more as we join the habitants and visitors at Sizzlinghurst Castle. In this series the aristocrats prepare for an uprising from the oppressed people of Staplehurst; argue over a shoot for Vanity Fair with acclaimed society snapper Manta Ray; seek advice from psychoanalyst Sigmund Void during a chance meeting on Hampstead Heath; and read poetry with the wonderfully modern scribes TS Jellitot and DH Lollipop.
During the recording of Gloomsbury last Summer Roger Lloyd-Pack said: “My characters couldn’t be more different as I play Lionel – an anxious aristocrat – and Gosling – a bluff peasant of dubious sexuality. I’ve always been interested in the Bloomsbury set and I think it’s a rather brilliant idea to make fun of them as they lived in this extraordinary, slightly snobby bubble.”
Gloomsbury is written by Sue Limb, produced and directed for Little Brother Productions by Jamie Rix (Not Going Out, My Hero, Harry Hill).
The second series of Gloomsbury will go out on BBC Radio 4 at 11.30am on Wednesdays from 2nd April 2014.
On Saturday 7th December at 9 45pm, Little Brother’s latest drama commission, MOTHER OF HIM by Evan Placey, starring David Harewood (Homeland) and Madeleine Potter (The White Countess) and directed by Matthew Dunster (Mogadishu, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), goes out on BBC Radio 3 as part of their acclaimed original drama strand The Wire.
“If you were looking at us, you might have even thought we were friends. Old friends. If my son hadn’t raped her daughter”.
When her teenage son Matthew is charged with raping three women in one night on a university campus, Brenda Kapowitz fights for him to be sentenced as a child and finds herself in the spotlight. With Matthew under house arrest and the press camped outside of her home intent on depicting her as the real criminal, Brenda fights to balance work, the care of her youngest son, 8 year-old Jason, and to stay in control. When her estranged ex-husband turns up, intent on taking Jason away, Brenda is pushed to breaking point.
Set in Toronto, over the eight nights of the Jewish festival of Hannukah, MOTHER OF HIM by Evan Placey explores the boundaries of motherly love and the psychological impact of the harsh invasion of the outside world into the serene and familiar world of the domestic.
| Brenda Kapowitz | Madeleine Potter |
| Jason Kapowitz | Lucas Glozman |
| Matthew Kapowitz | Ethan Brooke |
| Steven | David Harewood |
| Robert | John Moraitis |
| Jessica | Samantha Dakin. |
The Wire: Mother of Him, Radio 3, Saturday December 7, 9 45pm – 10 45pm
A brand new DVD of the iconic children’s animation containing no less than 11 episodes is coming out on September 30, distributed by Abbey Home Entertainment. These are Cautionary Tales for Lovers of Squeam! So if you have ever been scared by this show or have ever read one of Jamie Rix’s terrifying stories, or have ever been a naughty child yourself, or just know a naughty child who deserves to be punished… this is the DVD for you!
We are delighted to announce that:
The winner of Little Brother’s Big Opportunity II is LIZZIE NUNNERY.
Lizzie Nunnery’s play Intemperance is a compelling, deeply affecting work that resonated with every member of the judging panel. Lizzie’s is a striking and original voice and we look forward very much to developing an original idea of hers in the coming months.
This year’s runner up is SALLY WOODCOCK, whose play Fanta Orange, set in Kenya, delighted the panel with its wit, ambition and extraordinary insight.
Once again, thank you to all writers who submitted their work for our consideration and congratulations to all those writers who made it on to our long and short lists.
It was a pleasure to read such diverse and high quality work and we look forward to announcing news of further new writing initiatives in the future.
The short list for LBBO II is:
Tim Atack (Dave Consumed By Fire)
Dick Curran (Therapy)
Ken Emson (Eight Hundred And Thirty Seven Point Nine)
Ella Carmen Greenhill (Deafening Silence)
Dystin Johnson (Mental)
Daniel Kanaber (Postcards, Paintings and Forgettable Dreams)
Chris Lee (Shallow Slumber)
Julie Mayhew (A Shoebox of Snow)
Katie McCullough (Shifting)
Louise Monaghan (Alone in the Garden With You)
Joe Ward Munroe (The Laundry)
Lizzie Nunnery (Intemperance)
Sally Woodcock (Fanta Orange)
Congratulations to all the writers who have made the short list.
We will announce our winner at the end of the month.
We’re delighted to announce that Gloomsbury has just been commissioned for a second series!
“The Bloomsbury of Harold Nicholson, Vita Sackville-West, Virginia Woolf and Violet Trefusis as re-imagined by clever Sue Limb and recreated by a brilliant cast (Miriam Margolyes, Alison Steadman, Nigel Planer, Morwenna Banks, Jonathan Coy). It bustles along, shifting assorted real-life infatuations, elopements and enthusiasms into the higher planes of nonsense.” Daily Telegraph
“Sue Limb’s wicked new Bloomsbury spoof…” The Observer
“..one of the funniest, slyest, most naughtily inventive and brilliantly performed shows on the air. Sue Limb has come up with a parodic reflection of Bloomsbury which bursts out of its frame to become an entire parallel comic world. Miriam Margolyes is magnificent as Vera, writer, chatelaine of Sizzlinghurst, married to Henry (Jonathan Coy) to whom she is devoted while being in love with Ginny (Alison Steadman) who’s in love with anyone else”. Daily Telegraph
“The entangled love lives and literary follies of the Bloomsbury Group are parodied to perfection in Sue Limb’s six-part series…” Mail on Sunday
“The writing and acting are both faultless and the series cast includes other great comic names such as Morwenna Banks, Nigel Planer and John Sessions, who crops up as saucy novelist DH Lollipop in future weeks. This is a real Bohemian rhapsody – and I bet it moves to TV!” Daily Telegraph
“… a gloriously silly show…” The Lady
Following the success of our 2010 initiative, Little Brother’s Big Opportunity, we are once again offering a talented writer £1000 to develop an original television drama idea of theirs through to treatment stage with us.
We remain as committed as ever to championing and supporting new writing talent, and continue to develop original drama projects for television with some of the brightest emerging writers. Little Brother’s Big Opportunity II is an endeavour to discover new writing talent, and to develop with them compelling, original drama for television.
To be eligible, writers must have had one piece of their work professionally produced or, at the very least, have had a professional reading of their work. Writers who have contributed episodes to UK television series or serials (e.g. a long running soap) are eligible to apply, but writers who have already had an original single, series or serial broadcast on UK television are not eligible to enter. No prior writing experience for television is required.
To apply, writers must submit their writing CV and the piece of their work of which they are most proud, that best demonstrates their talent, (this could be a stage play, a radio play or a screenplay) to:
Little Brother’s Big Opportunity II
Little Brother Productions
155x Northcote Road
London, SW11 6QB
The deadline for submissions is August 31st 2012.
A winner will be announced by November 2012.
Please note that all applications must be sent by post and that, unless a stamped, addressed envelope is included, work will not be returned.
Grizzly Tales has won The Best Children’s Program award at the 2012 Broadcast Awards!
To add to its latest BAFTA nomination, Grizzly Tales has now also been nominated in The Best Children’s Programme category at this year’s Broadcast Awards.
Grizzly Tales, based on the books of cautionary tales by Jamie Rix and published by Orion, has been nominated in the Best Animation category at this year’s BAFTA awards. Recently re-conceived for Nickelodeon, Grizzly Tales is nominated for an episode entitled “Sick To Death” about a foul little girl who screams herself sick to get her own way…until that is she meets the super-sucking power of the new Shark Deluxe vacuum cleaner that polishes her off in one guzzling gulp. Grizzly Tales is narrated by Nigel Planer, co-directed and co-produced by Sara and Simon Bor and written, co-produced and co-directed by Jamie Rix. Thanks go to all those nasty little children everywhere without whose bad behaviour none of this would ever have been possible!
BBC Radio 4 has commissioned 6 episodes of Sue Limb’s new comedy Gloomsbury from Little Brother.
Green-fingered Sapphist Vera Sackcloth-Vest shares a bijou castle in Kent with her devoted husband Henry, but longs for exotic adventures with nervy novelist Veronica Fox and wilful beauty Venus Refusnik. It’s 1921, the dawn of modern love, life and lingerie, but Vera still hasn’t learnt how to boil a kettle.
Little Brother and Sardine Productions in Canada are teaming up to develop a 52×11 minute animated series of The Revenge Files of Alistair Fury.
In 2007/2008 Little Brother produced a 13 part live action comedy drama series of The Revenge File of Alistair Fury, written by Jamie Rix, which won the 2008 BAFTA for Best Children’s Drama.
For those of you who have never heard of Alistair Fury, here’s a glimpse into what makes him tick.
Life isn’t fair. Alistair Fury, otherwise known as Little Brother, has a grudge against the world. After all, the world doesn’t play straight with him. Because of his age, size and sex, life has dealt him a losing hand – he’s last in line for everything good and first in line for everything bad. And so the grudge grows, fuelled by the spiteful behaviour of his big brother and sister, and by a family too busy and self-interested to notice him, until finally it explodes into an uncontrollable rage that cries out for justice and attempts to level the playing field with a teaspoon. Alistair wants REVENGE!
Tom Green has won Little Brother’s Big Opportunity and will develop an original idea of his with us in the coming months through to treatment. His writing submission was described by Little Brother’s judges as ‘poignant, compelling and insightful’.
Little Brother’s Big Opportunity attracted hundreds of high quality submissions. We would like to thank every writer who took the time to submit a sample of their work and who made our final decision an incredibly difficult one.
We would also like to acknowledge the following writers whose compelling, thought provoking work made it onto our final short list:
Paul Ariss
Steven Bloomer
Kenneth Emson
Jessica Fisher
Dave Florez
Caroline Gardiner
Ella Carmen Greenhill
Louise Monaghan
Kate O’Reilly
Evan Placey
Rob Young
Once again, thank you to all writers who submitted their work. It was a pleasure to read such exciting material.