Congratulations to the Edinburgh TV Festival 2024!

Patrick Spence – Producer AC Chapter One; Monica Dolan – actress; Sarah McKenzie, Business Development Sargent-Disc

Cast & Crew was delighted to be the headline sponsor of the Edinburgh TV Awards 2024 for the third year running at the Edinburgh TV Festival.

Another inspiring Festival, the 2024 edition shone the spotlight on several key issues including the social make-up of the work force and reduced production budgets. It also celebrated the incredible depth of talent, creative and crew, within the British industry.

The pain felt by company closures was clearly acknowledged. However, many industry insiders such as Patrick Holland (Banijay UK), Charlotte Moore (BBC), Nicola Shindler (Quay Street) and Ian Katz (C4) expressed a long held view that there were just too many indies to be sustainable.

This ‘resizing’ of the workforce is likely to make it harder for working class people to enter the industry and build their careers. Both James Graham during his McTaggart Memorial Lecture and Carol Vorderman in her Alternative McTaggart Lecture highlighted how serious an issue this is for the future of the industry. They spoke about the detrimental impact of only 8% of those working in television coming from a working-class background – in terms of content, representation and workplace role models. Several participants feel that the TV Access Project (TAP) is making a difference. It’s importance was also flagged up by Julie Clark, ITV Studios, Director of Production Drama during her Sargent-Disc International Women’s Day In Conversation. With the support of the broadcasters and streamers it is having a real impact, but more work needs to be done.

The extent of talent and creativity within the UK television industry along with the current financial challenges were clearly evidenced in so many of the festival sessions. For instance, ‘Back From the Brink: Reimagining The Future of Television’, the ‘Spotlight On …….’ series with ITV, BBC, Netflix, C4, Warner Brothers;  ‘Will.I.Am: AI and The Future of Creativity’ supported by his AI assistant, ‘Saving Mr Bates: The Future of Factual Drama’ and many more.

The Festival’s major celebration of this creativity was the 90 minute 2024 Edinburgh TV Awards which showcased the best of the previous year’s British and international productions. Cast & Crew was honoured to support the event. Sargent-Disc, Cast & Crew’s UK company, was proud to Chair the ‘Best Drama’ and ‘Best International Drama’ judging panels and to present the best Drama Award to the very deserving winner ‘Mr Bates v the Post Office’. It was a thrill to realise Sargent-Disc had provided payroll, production accounting and Digital Production Office services to so many of the nominated productions

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners!

Patrick Spence and Monica Dolan accepting Best Drama Award for Mr Bates v the Post Office.

The 2024 winners were:

Outstanding Achievement Award:
Martin Lewis

 

Channel of the Year:
ITV1

 

Production Company of the Year:
Studio Lambert

 

Best Drama:
‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’ – ITV Studios and Little Gem for ITV1

 

Best International Drama:
‘The Bear’ – FX Productions for Disney+

 

Best TV Actor – Comedy:
Bridget Christie in ‘The Change’

 

Best TV Actor – Drama:
Monica Dolan in ‘Mr Bates vs The Post Office’

 

Climate Impact Award:
‘The Great Climate Fight’ – Keo Films Ltd for Channel 4

 

Best Comedy Series:
‘Big Boys’ – Roughcut TV for Channel 4

 

Small Indie of the Year:
Hardcash Productions

 

Best TV Presenter Entertainment:
Graham Norton – ‘The Graham Norton Show’

 

Best TV Presenter Factual: Nadifa Mohamed – ‘Britain’s Human Zoos’

 

Breakthrough Performance:
Dylan Thomas Smith in ‘G’wed’

 

Best Documentary:
‘Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland’ – Keo Films & Walk on Air Films for BBC Two & BBC Northern Ireland

 

Best On Demand Service:
BBC iPlayer

 

Best Entertainment Series:
‘The Traitors’ – Studio Lambert for BBC One

 

Best Popular Factual Series:
‘Sort Your Life Out’ – Optomen for BBC One

 

Production Group of The Year:
Banijay UK

 

TV Moment of the Year:
‘Hairy Bikers Coming Home for Christmas’

 

What a fantastic year it’s been!

Sargent-Disc returns to France for the 77th Festival de Cannes

Members of the team were pleased to return to France last week for the opening weekend of the 77th Festival de Cannes. Sargent-Disc were involved in a number of events designed to bring together international delegates.

Festival Winners

With the festival having wrapped on Saturday 25th May, we reflect on the winners. The prestigious Palme d’Or was awarded to Sean Baker’s Anora – the US comedy-drama follows a sex worker who must fend off the parents of a Russian oligarch who are keen to action an annulment after she finds herself married to him.

Jacque Audiard’s Emilia Perez took home the best actress prize shared by Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldana, Karla Sofia Gascon and Selena Gomez. Whereas Jesse Plemons took the award for best actor for Yorgas Lanthimos’ Kinds of Kindness.

Star Wars filmmaker George Lucas was met with a standing ovation as he was presented with an honorary Palme d’Or by Francis Ford Coppola.

View the full list of winners here.

The Sargent-Disc International Producers Reception

For the ninth time, Sargent-Disc hosted the International Producers Reception at the Members Club, Plage du festival on Saturday 18th May. Producers and financiers came together in a relaxed setting to establish new relationships and build on existing ones. The company gives thanks to the British Film Commission, International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), New Zealand Film Commission, Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television (PACT), The Production Guild of Great Britain (PGGB) and Screen Producers Ireland for their support with the event.

Women in Film and Television Brunch

The team was proud to sponsor the annual brunch held by Women in Film and Television (WFTV) again, held on the Coutts boat on Sunday 19th May. The event offered the opportunity for women, established and new to their careers, to meet and converse about the state of the industry.

Sargent-Disc to set off for the 77th Festival de Cannes

Sargent-Disc, a Cast & Crew company, is pleased to be returning to Cannes this year for the 77th edition of the film festival. Members of the team will be in attendance for the opportunity to meet with industry professionals alongside hosting/supporting several festival events.

UK and Irish Films at Cannes

UK and Irish films will have an impressive representation this year at the festival, including three films from Dublin, London and Belfast-based production company Element Pictures. Andrea Arnold’s sixth Feature Bird starring Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski will be featured in Competition – Arnold’s fourth time – and produced by House Productions, counting BBC Film and BFI within the funders. The esteemed Directors’ Fortnight’s Carrosse d’Or award will also be presented to Arnold this year.

Yorgas Lanthimos’ latest collaboration with Element Pictures, Kinds of Kindness, also sits in Competition whilst Santosh, Sandyha Suri’s neo-noir narrative debut with UK company Good Chaos plays in Un Certain Regard.

Events

Sargent-Disc is honoured to be supporting two important events at the festival this year. The Women in Film and Television Brunch, on Sunday 19th May, and our own International Producers Reception, on Saturday 18th May, will both be opportunities for industry figures to network and celebrate the latest successes in UK Film.

Sargent-Disc Team Attending:

Dr. Laurence Sargent (Director, Sargent-Disc; Co-Head of International, Cast & Crew)

Lara Sargent (Director, Sargent-Disc; Co-Head of International, Cast & Crew)

Sarah McKenzie (Business Development Consultant)

Imogen Mohr (Sales and Marketing Administrator)

Contact Us

If you have an enquiry, or would like to meet with a member of the team, please contact us at cannes@sargent-disc.com

Cast & Crew and Sargent-Disc host a Production Finance Reception

Following a successful Royal Television Society Programme Awards – the first year with Cast & Crew as the headline sponsor – Sargent-Disc, with Cast & Crew held a reception for those working within production finance and the production office on Wednesday 27 March at the Century Club, 61 – 63 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6LQ.

The evening saw members of the industry meet to discuss the current state of the industry, alongside the range of leading products and services offered by Cast & Crew and Sargent-Disc.

Imogen Mohr; Lara Sargent; Laurence Sargent; Bogdan Büchner (DPO); Jamika Sutton; Sarah McKenzie; Emma Wilford
Jeff Caruso (C&C); Andrew Jablonski (C&C); Lara Sargent; Laurence Sargent; John Berkley (C&C); Bogdan Büchner
Anna Iwanek (SD); Naomi Mercurius (SD); Pav Purewal (SD); Alison Small (Netflix)
Raj Patel, Ana Stichini and David Campbell (Coutts)
Georgina Voysey; Tallulah Jackman; Emma Wlford
Imogen Mohr; Emma Wilford; Angela Kelway (Trevanna)
Jamika Sutton; Emily Massey (Trevanna)
Sneha Nemchand (Raw TV); Laurence Sargent; Jane Gant (Raw TV)
Naomi Mercurius; Paula Chidgey ; Lara Sargent; Emma Wilford
Angela Kelway; Chantel Dilip (Trevanna); Jeff Caruso; Guillermo Quintanilla (Trevanna); Annie Gaudet (Trevanna); Sarah McKenzie (SD);

Cast & Crew backs British TV excellence at 2024 RTS Programme Awards

It was a glittering evening for the Sargent-Disc team on 26th March at the 2024 RTS Programme Awards, the first edition of the prestigious event to be presented in partnership with Cast & Crew, its new headline sponsor.

Hosted by comedian Tom Allen, the illustrious ceremony took place at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel in London. A host of notable screen talent was in attendance including Hannah Waddingham, Bella Ramsey, Jodie Whittaker, Gabby Roslin, Noel Fielding, Chris Packham, Stacey Solomon, Joe Swash, Mark Gatiss, Susanna Reid, Romesh Ranganathan, Kane Robinson and Siobhán McSweeney.

Laurence and Lara Sargent (Co Heads of International and Co Directors Sargent-Disc), John Berkley (CEO, Cast & Crew), Jeff Caruso (SVP and Head of Sales & Marketing FTVS, Cast & Crew) and Andrew Jablonski (VP East Coast and International Sales, Cast & Crew) were joined on the Cast & Crew table by a number of close colleagues and partners from across the UK industry.

Yet again the Awards showcased the world-class talent evident across all genres in British television. The BBC took home the most accolades overall, scoring 21 wins across the 30 categories. Hard-hitting drama The Sixth Commandment (Wild Mercury Productions and True Vision) was the most successful programme of the night, taking home awards for Limited Series, Supporting Actor – Male (Éanna Hardwicke) and Writer – Drama (Sarah Phelps). Judges describe the series as “pitch perfect, with exquisite performances and first-class writing.”

The team behind The Sixth Commandment
Photo credit: RTS/Richard Kendal

In the Drama series category, Happy Valley (Lookout Point/AMC for BBC) took home the award with Judges describing it as “game changing, top-of-the-class drama…sometimes operatic in scale, but attentive to the tiniest detail.” Meanwhile, Partygate(Halcyons Heart Films for Channel 4) took home the award for Single Drama.

Leading Actor awards went to Tamara Lawrance for the BBC’s Time and Kane Robinson for Netflix’s Top Boy. Elsewhere Netflix also picked up the Entertainment award for Squid Game: The Challenge and the Science & the Natural World award for Chimp Empire. Disney+ won its first RTS Programme Award in the Scripted Comedy category for Extraordinary, produced by Sid Gentle Films.

The 2024 Judges’ Award went to ITV’s ground-breaking series Mr Bates vs The Post Office, “for shining a light on the human stories of the real people caught in a living nightmare, and the incredible audience reaction to the series which provoked the government to take action.” Earlier this month, ITV Studios’ Director of Production, Drama, Julie Clark spoke about the success of the show in a special interview with Sargent-Disc to mark International Women’s Day (add link).

The team behind Mr Bates vs The Post Office - winners of the 2024 Judges' Award
Photo credit: RTS/Richard Kendal

The 2024 Outstanding Achievement Award went to renowned producer Stephen Lambert, whose career was recognised for “creating genre-defining formats that have travelled and been reproduced all over the world”. 

Stephen Lambert, winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award
Photo credit: RTS/Richard Kendal

Finally, the RTS also presented the Gold Medal, one of its most prestigious accolades, to broadcaster and producer Dame Esther Rantzen, whose daughter collected the award on her behalf, relaying Dame Rantzen’s words of acceptance that were delivered in her distinctive, inimitable style.

Dame Esther Rantzen, winner of the Gold Medal
Photo credit: RTS/Richard Kendal

Lara Sargent, Co-Head International at Cast & Crew and Sargent-Disc Co-Director says: “What an incredible evening! To see such sensitively made and powerful dramas as Mr Bates Versus the Post Office and The Sixth Commandment recognised by the Judges particularly underlines the power of programme-making, in terms of accountability and creating change in today’s society.

“We are delighted that our parent company Cast & Crew is the new headline sponsor for the RTS Programme Awards. Sargent-Disc is proud to play its part in this increased support for the UK television sector. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees who had a hand in producing the world-class content showcased tonight.”

Kenton Allen, Chair of the RTS Programme Awards, said: “Amidst rigorous deliberations by the juries, the winners stand as testament to their unwavering merit. Here’s to acknowledging the achievements of all involved – a reflection of an industry poised for continued innovation and impact in the UK and around the world.”

View the full list of winners and awards gallery here

Header image photo credit: Photo credit: RTS/Richard Kendal

Nominations announced for the RTS Programme Awards 2024, in partnership with Cast & Crew

The nominations have this week been announced for the RTS Programme Awards 2024, which is this year headline sponsored for the first time by Cast & Crew, the leading global provider of software and payroll services for the entertainment industry and parent company of Sargent-Disc.


Shortlisted nominees across all 30 categories were revealed by presenter Gaby Roslin on Thursday 7th March 2024, via a broadcast on the RTS website and YouTube channel.


Watch again here.


The BBC leads the charge this year with 51 nominations, in particular dominating with its drama output. Four nominations apiece have gone to hard-hitting true crime story The Sixth Commandment and comedy thriller series Black Ops, and the PSB has also scored three nominations in the Limited Series category for Best Interests, Boiling Point and The Sixth Commandment.


The BBC also owns all three nominations for the Breakthrough Award: Ashley Thomas (Great Expectations), Hamza Yassin (Hamza: Strictly Birds of Prey) and Lucy Edwards (Japan – The Way I See It – The Travel Show).


Channel 4 received a total of 17 nominations, with popular comedy drama Big Boys recognised across Comedy Drama, Comedy Performance – Male (Jon Pointing) and Writer – Comedy (Jack Rooke).


Meanwhile, Disney+ has scored its first RTS Programme Award nominations with superhero comedy Extraordinary featured in both the Scripted Comedy and Comedy Performance – Female (Máiréad Tyers) categories.


The Leading Actor – Female category sees Jodie Whittaker and Tamara Lawrance nominated for Time (BBC), alongside Sarah Lancashire for Happy Valley (BBC). In the Leading Actor – Male category, Kane Robinson is nominated for Top Boy (Netflix), Gary Oldman for Slow Horses (Apple TV+) and Timothy Spall for The Sixth Commandment (BBC).


Laurence Sargent, Co-Head International at Cast & Crew and Sargent-Disc Director says: “After eight years as an RTS Major Patron, Sargent-Disc is extremely proud that 2024 marks the new chapter of headline sponsorship from our parent company Cast & Crew, a global business with established links to companies across the UK industry who are producing world-class content. We congratulate all the 2024 nominees and look forward to celebrating their excellence on the night.”


Kenton Allen, Chair of the RTS Programme Awards, said: “2023 was an outstanding year for UK creativity, and the nominations we have announced today highlight the breadth of genre-defining, exceptional programming that British audiences have enjoyed over the last 12 months. Despite the unpredictable times our industry currently faces, we at the RTS welcome the opportunity to come together as a creative community and celebrate the hard work and incredible talent, on and off camera, that makes sensational shows for audiences here and on the global stage.”


The RTS Programme Awards in partnership with Cast & Crew will take place on Tuesday 26th March at the JW Marriott Grosvenor House Hotel in London, hosted by comedian Tom Allen.


View the full list of nominations here.