The Brit List, the UK’s leading resource for unproduced British screenplays, has announced its 2019 Television line up, sponsored by Red Arrow Studios International.

Alternating every other year with the Film List, this is the second Brit List: TV to be published. The list was announced yesterday, November 19, at a ceremony at the Century Club in London.

The Brit List: TV is a platform for the best of British screenwriting compiled from recommendations by British production companies, talent agencies, financiers and broadcasters. This year an unprecedented number of companies took part in recommending scripts for the list and the bar has moved higher, with scripts needing a minimum of 4 recommendations for consideration. Of 232 scripts put forward, 24 have been selected for The Brit List: TV 2019.

This year’s list also features the largest numbers ever of female screenwriters and screenwriters from BAME backgrounds, with 48% of scripts on the list by women and 24% by BAME writers.

Carlo Dusi, EVP Commercial Strategy, Scripted at sponsors of the Brit List: TV, Red Arrow Studios International, said: “We are delighted to be partners in this year’s Brit List TV. Identifying, developing and supporting talent is crucial to the growth of our creative industry and the Brit List provides a unique showcase for writers. It is an increasingly unmissable event for all content producers, and we look forward to continuing to work with Alexandra and the Brit List team on this year’s programme of activities.”

This year’s Brit List: TV

FLED by Karen Cogan (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Darkly comedic, provocative drama.
  • Summary: A pregnant girl and a scared nun are forced together to find some kind of freedom in the last remaining Mother and Baby Home in 90s Ireland.

EIGHT RECOMMENDATIONS

Only Child by Ryan J Brown (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: Big Talk
  • Genre: Crime thriller
  • Summary: A grieving mother from a small northern town finds new life in the dangerous pursuit of the serial killer who framed her daughter for mass murder.

SEVEN RECOMMENDATIONS

Samson and Goliath by Conor Keane (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: Big Talk
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Summary: Sean Colgan owns Belfast’s third biggest party hire company. He’s also killed 16 people for the IRA. When a victim’s body shows up after 20 years, his past – and his old colleagues – come back to haunt him.

Furies by Archie Maddocks (Independent Talent Group) Producers: Warp Films

  • Genre: Character-led drama
  • Summary: A family of black women decide to take justice into their own hands after the youngest daughter is injured in a drive-by shooting. Crashing together drama, humour and action, the series explores how far we are willing to go to protect our family and what we’ll let slide in the name of love.

SIX RECOMMENDATIONS

On the Verge by Anna Ssemuyaba (Casarotto)

  • Producers: Tiger Aspect
  • Genre: Comedy Drama
  • Summary: The misadventures of a 16 year old girl from South London, struggling to survive after she’s launched into the world of oversexed, over-educated and hedonistically Catholic teenagers at her new school.

FIVE RECOMMENDATIONS

Winter by Elliot Barnes-Worrell (Independent Talent Group) Producers: Heyday / NBC Universal

  • Genre: Drama
  • Summary: A drama with humour about a young poet trying to survive a hostile London whilst going through an identity crisis about being mixed race.

Leafy by Tallulah Brown (United Agents)

  • Producers: Warp Films
  • Genre: Comedy Drama
  • Summary: British-born, LA-based music producer Nico must deal with a bipolar diagnosis and her explosive relationship with her Mum after she gets deported. A fierce and funny series set between the UK and US about music, mental health and returning to your roots.

When I’m not Around by Lee Coan (Independent Talent Group) Producers: Bandit Cornwall

  • Genre: Family Comedy Drama
  • Summary: Nine year old gymnast Amelie’s cancer diagnosis puts pressure on her family. Despite their best attempts to cope, her ex-serviceman father struggles to find a job, her sister is bullied, and her mother tries to work out how to balance Amelie’s illness and her desire to live a normal life.

Cutting Class by Abi Gliddon (Curtis Brown Group) Producers: Headline Pictures

  • Genre: Mystery Thriller
  • Summary: Maryam, the daughter of a Sheikh, goes missing from her elite London school. As her two best friends try to locate and protect her, they come up against her father’s sinister security operation and an exploding international scandal. Out of their depths, the girls turn to their mothers for help.

Wrath by David MacPherson (The Agency)

  • Producers: Balloon Entertainment
  • Genre: Drama
  • Summary: Cape Wrath has a drug problem. The source: Hugh Bremen. When a curious hitman and a bullied bank clerk team up to deal with him, a chain reaction of vengeance is unleashed.

How To Get Rid of Carol by Anna Mason (Curtis Brown Group)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Comedy Drama
  • Summary: When Jess, a socially awkward, Yorkshire based Ski-shop owner, is faced with losing her ‘soul mate’ Tristan to the free-spirited, award winning ski boot-fitter Carol – she desperately suggests the only thing she can do to keep him – a throuple. This is definitely not a love story.

FOUR RECOMMENDATIONS

Smilla’s Sense Of Snow by Clive Bradley (The Agency)

  • Producers: Constantin Film
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Summary: Adapted from Peter Høeg’s novel

Supercut by Rose Cartwright (The Artist’s Partnership)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Sci-fi Thriller
  • Summary: A self-obsessed young woman, living in the sleazy glamour and celebrity of 2040s Los Angeles, gets entangled in the psychological, cosmetic and genetic manipulation of the perfection industry.

A Single Lie by Caroline Carver (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: Ecosse Films
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Summary: When a woman is accused of stealing another woman’s baby from a hospital 17 years earlier, her shocking past crashes into her perfect present to devastating effect.

Not Suitable for Children by Cat Clarke (Dench Arnold Agency)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Comedy Drama
  • Summary: The lives, loves and shenanigans of three queer women navigating the overwhelmingly straight, privileged–and downright absurd–world of children’s publishing.

Westphalia by Alyn Farrow (Curtis Brown Group)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Dark Drama
  • Summary: As the police struggle to control a number of internet vigilante groups, one member of the online community threatens to change the rules for everyone.

Wolf by Tony Grisoni (Casarotto, Ramsay & Associates Ltd)

  • Producers: Potboiler Productions Ltd
  • Genre: Multi-narrative epic
  • Summary: A contemporary refugee story dovetails with the post-WW2 invasion of Sicily. The action follows a clutch of characters as they converge on Sicily where an unholy alliance is to be formed between the Mafia and the occupying Anglo-American forces. With powerful echoes of contemporary meddling in the Near and Middle East

Money Trees by Adam Gyngell & Fred Armesto (Sayle Screen)

  • Producers: Circle of Confusion
  • Genre: Mystery Thriller
  • Summary: A cynical IRS agent finds her life transformed when she goes undercover to investigate an enigmatic self-help guru who promises he can make anyone a millionaire in a year.

The Drip by Jess Jackson (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Thriller
  • Summary: An undercover CIA agent starts to lose faith in his country when his mission forces him to deceive and abuse his fellow Americans

Raging by Florence Keith-Roach (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: Ecosse Films
  • Genre: Dramedy
  • Summary: Tackling the taboo of female anger, this is an irreverent and provocative comedy series about a young woman’s journey to confront her crippling rage, after a clip of her hitting her boyfriend in a public, lambrini soaked outburst goes viral.

Brown Tape by Namsi Khan (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Family Thriller
  • Summary: British Pakistani immigrant, Saad Maliq, attempts to settle old scores and claim control of Manchester’s drug trade by intercepting a shipment of Afghani heroin.

The Borough by Daniel Rusteau (Knight Hall Agency)

  • Producers: Available
  • Genre: Crime Drama
  • Summary: Two infamous families of the underworld battle for control of an Essex borough.

Four Nineteen by Ashley Sanders (Independent Talent Group)

  • Producers: The Forge / Newscope Films
  • Genre: Grounded Sci-fi Mystery Thriller
  • Summary: Fifteen years ago a four-year-old boy was mysteriously abducted one night at 4:19 am and later returned. This event will change the past of some but the future of all.

The Lost Chix by Lauren Sequeira (The Agency)

  • Producers: New Pictures
  • Genre: Drama
  • Summary: When Lily returns to the “Lost Town” estate she tries to get back in with her old girl gang, but is iced out by ex-bestie Niesha. When she smuggles herself onto a honeytrap, orchestrated by The Lost Boys, Lily discovers that her Chix are enslaved to them. However, when she finds a way for the Chix to make their own moves, Lily offers Niesha a tempting proposition.

Associate sponsors of this year’s list are ScreenSkills, Sharp House, Integro Entertainment and Sport, Filmarket Hub and CSA. For the second year our event was kindly hosted by Private members club, The Century Club, and we also thank our generous in-kind sponsors British made Renaissance Vodka and London based Franklin & Sons Mixers and Tonics.