Production company behind The Sweeney and Minder will be run by BBC head of drama production

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

FremantleMedia UK is to revive the production company behind classic 1970s and 80s dramas including The Sweeney and Reilly, Ace of Spies, and has hired the BBC head of drama production to run it.

Kate Harwood, who has overseen hits including Cranford, Luther, Five Daughters and The Musketeers during her 24 years at the BBC, will join Fremantle as managing director of Euston Films in the summer.

Euston Films has been mothballed since the mid-1990s but was producer of ITV dramas including The Flame Trees of Thika, Widows, Capital City and Reilly, Ace of Spies. The name faded away after owner Thames Television lost its ITV franchise in 1992.

It was set up as a Thames subsidiary in 1971 to specialise in high quality mainstream drama and built a reputation for shooting on film and on location, unlike much production of scripted TV output at the time. Euston's best known productions were cop drama The Sweeney and comedy Minder.

Minder was Euston Films' longest-running success, on air for 15 years from 1979. It was revived briefly by Channel 5 in 2009, with Shane Richie in the lead role but under the Talkback Thames name, rather than as a Euston Films production.

Many of the leading drama producers and writers of the era worked for Euston at one time or another, including Ted Childs, Verity Lambert, Linda Agran and Lynda La Plante

Harwood will be responsible for bringing the brand back to life, relaunching it as part of RTL subsidiary FremantleMedia - which owns the Thames name.

She said: "I am delighted to be taking up the role of managing director of Euston Films and am really relishing the challenge of new ventures in drama in the independent sector after many happy years in BBC Production."

Harwood will be looking to create high-end shows with international appeal and will report to FremantleMedia UK chief executive Sara Geater.

Geater said: "Euston Films is a name associated with iconic drama, and I'm delighted to announce that we will be launching it as a new label as part of FremantleMedia UK. Our strategy is to produce high-end drama with global reach, and Kate's appointment as managing director of Euston Films is a real coup. She brings a fantastic wealth of experience and knowledge, and will be a great asset."

Euston Films will sit alongside the existing Fremantle production "labels" Boundless, Newman Street, Retort, Talkback and Thames.

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