History
Carnival Films was founded in 1978 by feature film producer Brian Eastman.
Over the last thirty four years Carnival has produced over 500 hours of drama and comedy for television, cinema and stage. This included 70 hours of Agatha Christie’s Poirot starring David Suchet and 24 hours of Rosemary and Thyme, starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris. In action/adventure it produced BUGS, Oktober and The Grid, in comedy drama it produced Jeeves and Wooster starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, teenage drama-comedy As If, as well as the adaptations of Tom Sharpe’s novels Blott on the Landscape and Porterhouse Blue.
In 2004 the BBC’s former Head of Drama Commissioning Gareth Neame joined Carnival as Managing Director. In 2007 former Creative Director of BBC Drama Sally Woodward Gentle joined the company as Creative Director. Sally and Gareth had previously worked together on ‘’Spooks’’ (MI:5), Tipping the Velvet and Cambridge Spies.
In 2008 Carnival was acquired by NBCUniversal as part of its plan to increase its presence in content creation outside the US. Following several more acquisitions Carnival is now part of NBCUniversal International Television Production alongside newer additions Monkey Kingdom, Working Title Television, Chocolate Media and Lucky Giant in the UK, Lark in Canada and Matchbox Pictures in Australia.
Under the direction of Gareth Neame and Sally Woodward Gentle, Carnival has produced series such as Material Girl, Midnight Man, and The Philanthropist; hit returning series Hotel Babylon and Whitechapel; the critically acclaimed television films Enid starring Helena Bonham Carter and Matthew Macfadyen; ‘’Page Eight’’ starring Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon and Ralph Fiennes; and landmark four part drama Any Human Heart starring Jim Broadbent, Matthew MacFadyen, Hayley Atwell and Kim Cattrall.
However Carnival’s biggest hit, both commercially and critically is the Julian Fellowes penned Downton Abbey. Having won 19 national and international awards from 43 nominations including two BAFTAs, six Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe, it was also named by the Guinness Book of World Records as the "most critically acclaimed English-language television show" of 2011. A worldwide phenomenon that is aired in 212 countries Downton is now in production on its third series with Shirley MacLaine joining the cast as Martha Levinson.
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