Shed Productions - Company History

Company History

Shed’s first major production, the hit drama Bad Girls was commissioned by ITV in the summer of 1998 and proved to be a huge success with viewers, becoming one of the UK’s most consistently successful dramas during its eight series run.

In 2000, following the success of Bad Girls, Shed won a major new commission for primetime ITV, Footballers' Wives. During the five series it was on air, Footballers’ Wives became probably the most talked-about UK drama of recent times and spawned the popular ITV2 spin-off Footballers' Wives Extra Time, and factual entertainment series Footballers' Wives TV which aired on ITV2 in 2005.

2005 also saw Shed’s first foray into the realms of children’s television when seven-part drama The Fugitives was commissioned by CITV. Starring Maureen Lipman, Jack Ellis and Melanie Hill, the show centred on two runaway teenagers and tackled head-on the serious subject of human cloning.

In 2006, Shed received its first commission from BBC One, Waterloo Road, a drama series about a failing comprehensive school in Rochdale. After proving to be a huge hit with viewers, especially the valuable 16-24 year old audience, Waterloo Road was immediately re-commissioned by the BBC for a second series. Remaining consistently popular with the viewers, seven series of Waterloo Road have so far been aired (as of 2012). In November 2011, it was announced by the BBC and Shed Media that production on the show would be relocating from Rochdale to a new location in Greenock, Scotland as part of the BBC's aim to produce more programming in the country. A further 50 episodes were commissioned for broadcast between 2012 and 2014, with the first to begin airing from September 2012. Filming on the eighth series began in April 2012 at the shows new location, the former Greenock Academy, and began airing from August 2012. Production on a ninth series began on 1 April 2013.

One-off drama Catwalk Dogs – written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye and starring Kris Marshall and Georgia MacKenzie – aired on ITV1 in 2007 and introduced viewers to the world of dog shows. This was followed in 2008 by Rock Rivals, another ITV commission that starred Michelle Collins and Sean Gallagher as Karina and Mal Faith – the bickering judges on a phenomenally successful TV talent show.

In 2008, BBC One commissioned Hope Springs, a new eight-part drama from Shed Productions through BBC Scotland. The show, which will star Annette Crosbie and Alex Kingston, is about four female ex-cons who find themselves in hiding in a remote Scottish village called Hope Springs after their plans to start a new life in Barbados go awry. Filming has begun in summer 2008 in the Lowland village of Wanlockhead. The series began airing on BBC One on Sunday 7 June 2009.

Following on from Hope Springs will be Dirty Something, a drama series set around the lives and loves of Notting Hill Tories.