Sid Gentle Films, the BAFTA and Emmy award-winning producers behind “Killing Eve” and “The Durrells,” headed by Sally Woodward Gentle (pictured below), has acquired the rights to develop Cash Carraway’s “Skint Estate” for TV, and has lined up a lead writer for previously announced “Taking Up Space.” Both projects are in formal development with British broadcasters.
“Skint Estate” is a darkly funny, searingly political, debut memoir from Carraway, described as “a scream against austerity that rises full of rage,” set in a landscape of public housing, police cells, refuges and peepshows. With working title “Shit Show,” the series is in formal development with BBC, and Cash will adapt all episodes. BBC Studios will distribute.
Cash has been described as “the new voice of a generation” by the London Times and the book launched to rave reviews. She recently announced the prequel to “Skint Estate,” “Fleshpot,” will be published by Ebury Press in March 2022. Cash is represented by Curtis Brown.
Sally Woodward Gentle arrives at the “Killing Eve” Season 2 premiere held at the Arclight Hollywood in Los Angeles. (Photo By Sthanlee B. Mirador/Sipa USA/Sipa via AP Images)
Sipa USA via AP
Last year, Sid Gentle Films announced they had won the dramatic TV rights to “Taking Up Space,” and can now announce that Cherish Shirley will be the lead writer. The series is also in active development with a British broadcaster, to be announced at a later date. BBC Studios will distribute.
Cherish is a screenwriter and producer. She set up and joined the writers’ room for Netflix’s “Turn Up Charlie,” produced by Idris Elba’s company, Green Door, and worked as the writer’s assistant and storyliner on ITV sitcom “Vicious,” starring Ian McKellan and Derek Jacobi. She has original series in development with production companies Sugar Films and Mermade, and is working on a project on race and identity for a U.K. broadcaster. Cherish has worked in scripted development at Big Talk and Film4. Cherish is represented by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates.
“Taking Up Space,” by Chelsea Kwakye and Ore Ogunbiyi, was published in June 2019 as the flagship release for Stormzy’s imprint at Penguin Random House, #Merky Books.
Sid Gentle Films was founded by Sally Woodward Gentle in 2013, along with Lee Morris and Henrietta Colvin. Credits to date include BAFTA nominated “The Durrells” for ITV and Masterpiece, “SS-GB” for the BBC, “Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories” for Sky, and the BAFTA and Peabody winning and Emmy and Golden Globe nominated “Killing Eve” for BBC America.