Left Bank Pictures' first television commission was
Wallander, a television adaptation of
Henning Mankell's
Kurt Wallander novels. The first series was filmed on location in
Skåne,
Sweden in the summer of 2008, and broadcast in November and December 2008. The series won the
British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series. The BBC announced the commissioning of a second series in May 2009. Filming ran over the summer again and the series was broadcast in January 2010. The final series as broadcast in 2016. In March 2008, it was announced that Left Bank would be producing
Strike Back, a six-part series for
Sky One based on
Chris Ryan's novel. The production, starring
Richard Armitage and
Andrew Lincoln, was filmed on location in South Africa in 2009 for broadcast on Sky1 and Sky1 HD in 2010. Also in 2008, Left Bank produced its first feature film;
The Damned United was directed by
Tom Hooper from a script adapted by
Peter Morgan from
David Peace's novel
The Damned Utd. 2008 also saw Left Bank's first commission for
Channel 4;
Kids School of Comedy, a pilot sketch show, was produced for the
Comedy Lab strand, and was based on a stage show in which Andy Harries' son performed. A six-part
School of Comedy series was commissioned by
E4 and was broadcast in 2009. A second series has since been commissioned. At the end of 2008, Left Bank received its first commission from
ITV, to produce
Frank Deasy's four-part serial drama
Father & Son. The drama was co-financed by ITV, the Irish broadcaster
RTÉ and the Irish Film Board. The production was based in Dublin, where most of the programme was filmed, even though it was set in Manchester, England. RTÉ broadcast the drama in 2009, and it went on to win the
Irish Film and Television Award for Best Single Drama/Drama Serial category. It was broadcast on
ITV1 in June 2010. In 2009, Left Bank produced the six-part romantic comedy series
Married Single Other for ITV. The series stars
Ralf Little,
Shaun Dooley,
Lucy Davis,
Miranda Raison,
Amanda Abbington and
Dean Lennox Kelly, and was filmed on location in
Leeds. It was broadcast on ITV1 in February and March 2010. In 2010, Left Bank produced an adaptation of
Peter Robinson's
Aftermath for ITV, starring
Stephen Tompkinson as DCI Banks, and
Zen, an adaptation of three of
Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen novels, which was filmed on location in Italy for BBC Scotland. In 2011, Sky1 broadcast the first series of Left Bank's
Mad Dogs, starring
John Simm,
Philip Glenister,
Marc Warren and
Max Beesley. In 2012
Optimum Releasing distributed the feature film
All in Good Time.
Filmography Television Film •
The Damned United (2009) (Distributed by
Columbia Pictures) •
The Lady (2011) (Distributed by EuropaCorp (France), Entertainment Film Distributors (UK), Cohen Media Group (US), and Golden Scene Company Limited (Hong Kong)) •
All in Good Time (2012) •
Dark River (2017) •
Misbehaviour (2020) == Awards ==