DCD Rights signs Deep Water and The Code to BBC Four, in a host of drama deals

26 September 2016


Independent UK based distributor DCD Rights has signed a range of deals for its drama programming, concluding significant acquisitions for four-part crime thriller Deep Water and the second season of award-winning thriller The Code, as it prepares to launch contemporary legal drama Striking Out at MIPCOM 2016.

Set to premiere on SBS Australia this autumn, Deep Water, a 4 x 60’ drama inspired by a vicious crime wave that swept Sydney’s coastal communities in the 1980s and 90s, will make its UK debut on BBC Four later this year. RLJ Entertainment has acquired North American rights and will offer its US premiere on Acorn TV beginning Monday November 7th.

As part of the same deals, BBC Four and RLJ Entertainment’s Acorn TV have also acquired the second 6 x 60’ season of Playmaker’s hit political thriller The Code. This adds to deals with DR (Denmark), Super Channel (Canada), RUV (Iceland), Vubiquity (Middle East, Africa, South East Europe and Israel) and Arte (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany and Austria), as well as DVD/Video rights to Universal Pictures Video (French speaking Europe, Canada and Africa). The first season of The Code has sold to over 60 territories.

Striking Out, a new four-part primetime drama from Bl!nder Films for RTE, will make its international debut at MIPCOM 2016 with DCD Rights. The drama will showcase as part of RTE’s autumn schedule and is coproduced by Acorn Media Enterprises, Acorn TV’s UK development arm. Featuring a star-studded cast including Amy Huberman (Moone Boy), Rory Keenan (Peaky Blinders), Fiona O’Shaughnessy (The Living and The Dead) and Neil Morrissey (Line of Duty), Striking Out centres on the tumultuous professional and personal life of solicitor Tara Rafferty (Huberman), and her fledgling law firm, offering an addictively engaging snapshot of contemporary life.

Nicky Davies Williams, CEO at DCD Rights, commented, “We’re very pleased to announce such a wide range of deals for our current dramas – both Deep Water and the new season of The Code deliver impeccable primetime content which is sure to attract strong ratings. At the same time, Striking Out is a fantastic new contemporary drama offering highly relatable contemporary themes and engaging characters which we’re confident will have wide audience appeal wherever it airs. The expansion of our drama catalogue and co-production activities continue to be key accelerators in our growth and these significant deals underline the ongoing success of this strategy.”

Dealing with the weighty issues of modern love, modern relationships and modern life, Striking Out is packed with ethical and emotive dilemmas while also being filled to the brim with charm, humour and humanity. When Tara discovers her fiancé and fellow solicitor Eric (Keenan) has been cheating with a colleague – she leaves him and the prestigious law firm they worked at to set up her own practice specialising in family and divorce law. Working alongside her new team, including mentor and friend, Senior Barrister Vincent (Morrissey), and tech guru and private detective extraordinaire Meg (O’Shaughnessy), Tara’s often surprising, sometimes poignant and always intriguing cases will not only put her in direct conflict with influential families and the legal and political establishment, but also challenge her own personal morals. But throughout their findings, fallouts and resolutions, Tara discovers that this unexpected road is actually more thrilling, rewarding and fulfilling than the path she nearly took was ever going to be.

Starring Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black) and Noah Taylor (Peaky Blinders), Deep Water is a Blackfella Films production for SBS Broadcasting Australia, Screen Australia & Screen New South Wales. When detectives Tori Lustigman (Stone) and Nick Manning (Taylor) are assigned a brutal murder case, they begin to uncover mounting evidence to suggest the killing is connected to a spate of unexplained deaths, “suicides” and disappearances of gay men in NSW throughout the 80s and 90s. When more ritualistic murders occur with the same bizarre signature, Tori and Nick will need to put their relationships, their careers and their lives on the line to finally reveal the truth.

Alongside the 4 x 60’ drama is a 90’ feature documentary uncovering the story of a wave of vicious crime that engulfed a community but was invisible to most. Up to 80 murders, 30 unsolved cases, thousands of assaults. The attackers were united by contempt – their targets united by their sexual identity. A tale of police ineptitude amid a society riddled by homophobia. For the first time on screen the full account of the crime epidemic that bloodied Sydney’s coastline through the 80s and 90s is revealed.

Golden Globe winner Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) and Sigrid Thornton (Little Oberon) join a stellar cast for the second season of critically acclaimed drama The Code. Hoping to escape the storm they unleashed at the end of the first season, bruised, but essentially scot-free – Jesse (Ashley Zukerman) and Ned (Dan Spielman) are confronted with the terrifying possibility of being extradited to the US to face serious charges in an American court. Fortunately, Australian National Security is sitting on an explosive case they can’t crack and Jesse Banks might be the man to do it… Exchanging his hacker skills for their freedom, Jesse and Ned are drawn into a dark world that could not only cost their own lives but all that they hold dear. A Playmaker Production for ABC TV, The Code was developed through the Scribe Initiative and is produced with the assistance of Screen Australia, Screen NSW, Screen Queensland, the ACT Government and Screen ACT.