Following up on the success of Ture Sventon and the secret of the Bermuda Triangle, the Swedish group is boosting its drama slate for kids and youth

The announcement was made this week during the Göteborg TV Drama Vision market by head of drama Josefine Tengblad. “We are proud to be expanding our high-quality productions for children and young people,” she said.

Speaking to nordicfilmandtvnews.com, she explained that the Ture Sventon series based on Åke Holmberg’s book was a “kind of a trial to test the market”, and “results were overwhelming”. “We are building a library, a new universe for kids and youth. We want people, when they come to C More, to find something they like. We do have a fantastic existing library with many celebrated IPs, notably from Astrid Lindgren, but we need to create originals,” she noted.

Tengblad’s drama department will oversee the commissioning of 3-5 family projects per year in the 10x44’ and 6x15’ formats. Two projects in development were announced: 

  • Robssons, a sitcom about a high-tech and highly intelligent family of robots, sent to Earth with a mission to find out how humans function. Scripted and directed by Fredde Granberg and Thomas Claesson, the series produced by Nordisk Film TV is due to premiere in the fall 2020.
  • Summer Island (Sommarön, working title) is a youth drama about friendship, love and adventure at a summer camp on Sommarön. The show produced by New Stories will be the directorial debut of actress Molly Nutley. The premiere is set for 2021.

Meanwhile Ture Sventon played by popular actor Robert Gustafsson, will return for new adventures in a new season in development.

Reiterating her drama strategy, Tengblad said the new family strand will sit next to the existing three major genres, with C More/TV4 securing rights for all platforms.

The three other drama focuses are: -

  • comedy, with 1-2 long running series of 8-10 episodes of 22 minutes a year  
  • serialised, with 4-6 series of 4-10 episodes of 44 minutes a year 
  • procedurals, with 3-4 series of 4-5 episodes of 90 minutes a year. 

Looking ahead, Tengblad said she plans to increase her drama output from 11 projects in 2020 to around 15 in 2021. “We want to remain local and cater for all audiences, and although we are raising our volume, quality will always dominate,” she insists.  

Among C More/TV4’s strong branded shows that premiered successfully in 2019 were FLX’s financial drama Blinded (Fartblinda), comedy Solsidan, Season 6, and Sweetwater’s A Wedding, Funeral and a Christening, watched by 2.5 million Swedes.

2020 kick-started strongly as well with Agent Hamilton starring Jakob Oftebro which posted a share of 24.3% in the younger target group (15-64) and an overall audience of 620 000 (3+) for the two first episodes.

As part of C More/TV4’s ambition to secure the highest quality from development to delivery, the group has just added new recruits to the drama department.

Sonja Hermele, formerly at Nice Drama, is now executive producer, while Elin Kvist is head of development and Nathalie Drago development executive. Meanwhile Niva Westlin has been appointed as executive producer-feature film, reporting as well to Kristina Börjeson, head of production and administration. 

C More/TV4’s next premium drama set to premiere on February 3rd is the suspense drama Thin Ice (Tunn Is) produced by Yellow Bird, in co-production with Iceland’s Sagafilm, and support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. The eight-part drama dealing with the burning issues of climate change and geo-politics in the Arctic, is based on an idea by actress Lena Endre and producer Millennium Søren Stærmose.