Founded in 2017 by the high-profile former DR Head of Drama Piv Bernth and former DR Deputy Head of Drama Lars Hermann, Copenhagen-based Apple Tree Productions has been focusing on creating high end drama series both for the Nordic and international market, with ITV Studios handling global distribution. The company’s production team also includes Dorthe Riis Lauridsen, Cathrine Skotte and Mathias Bruunshøj Jakobsen.

So far Apple Tree Productions has delivered the Netflix Original Danish show Equinox starring Danica Curcic. The six-part supernatural thriller created by Tea Lindeburg, based on the Danish podcast Equinox 1985 premiered on the US streamer in December.

Commenting on the new agreement with the UK group, Bernth and Hermann said: “We are so excited to be a closer part of the ITV Studios family. Working with them for the past three years has been extremely inspiring and rewarding. We hope that we, closer together now, can merge all our best efforts and make Scandinavian and international drama to viewers all over the world.”

Julian Bellamy, Managing Director, ITV Studios added: “The global appetite for the Nordics’ very distinctive style of storytelling has grown and grown, both within Denmark itself as well as globally. Piv, Lars and the team at Apple Tree Productions, have a fantastic reputation for bringing high quality, premium drama to the screen watched by Danish viewers as well as a global audience. I’m looking forward to the next chapter for ITV Studios and Apple Tree Productions.”

Apple Tree Productions sits alongside ITV Studios’ other production brands in 12 countries including Cattleya in Italy, Tetra Media Studios in France and Mammoth Screen in the UK.

Apple Tree’s next series is the Swedish crime drama Blackwater (Hændelser ved vand) directed by internationally-acclaimed actress turned director Pernille August. The six-part show is created by Queen of Hearts’ writer Maren Louise Käehn from Kerstin Ekman’s best-selling crime novel.

The story starts on a Midsummer night in 1970, when two tourists are found murdered in a tent, deep in the mountains in northern Sweden. The incident intersects four random people’s lives, intertwining their destinies, as events are told from multiple viewpoints.

Apple Tree’s Swedish arm is producing with Germany’s ARD Degeto for SVT and ARD, co-financing from the Nordic 12 pubcasters alliance and support among others from Nordisk Film & TV Fond. Production is due to start in the spring.