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Standing in the cavernous space between the seven sound stages of Wolf Studios Wales, two miles from Cardiff city centre, it\u2019s very clear that Bad Wolf was always conceived as a project of scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Founded almost exactly a decade ago by former BBC<\/a> drama controllers Jane Tranter and Julie Gardner (the Cardiff studios opened two years later), the company was at the vanguard of the UK\u2019s high-end TV revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of its early productions, an adaptation of Phillip Pullman\u2019s universe-spanning fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials, was at the time the BBC\u2019s most expensive show to date, reportedly costing around \u00a350m, thanks to major partnerships with New Line Cinema and HBO.<\/p>\n Since then, the landscape has changed dramatically. Rampant inflation, a recalibration of streamers\u2019 spending and the bottom falling out of the US co-production market have created a very challenging environment for top-level British drama producers<\/p>\n Bad Wolf, owned by Sony Pictures Television, has navigated these changes better than most \u2013 it was the biggest UK indie by turnover that took part in this year\u2019s Broadcast Indie Survey, with revenues of \u00a3155.48m in its last financial year \u2013 but even it is rethinking its strategy. Welcome to Bad Wolf 2.0.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tranter acknowledges that the label\u2019s first decade was \u201cfounded off the back of a substantial and what looked like a sustainable American and UK co-production model. We\u2019ve had 10 years at huge scale \u2013 and we will have another 10 years at a different type of scale.\u201d<\/p>\n The changing market conditions have been \u201ca slow creep\u201d which have been on the company\u2019s radar for a while, she says, in part because of how attuned it is to the US market. As a result, its slate is already \u201ca much more mixed ecology\u201d of content\u201d, leaning into shows at a lower price point\u00a0\u2013 exemplified by last year\u2019s Red Eye. The pacey thriller, set on board a flight to China, was sold to 120 territories around the world and was recommissioned by ITV<\/a> last autumn. Series 2 will likely TX in early 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Going forward, Tranter believes that the highest budgets will \u201cprobably top out around \u00a35m or \u00a36m an episode\u201d, alongside more modest budgets for shows \u201cwhere you feel grateful to get \u00a32m-ish\u201d.<\/p>\n Managing director for finance and operations, Mary Furlong is quick to point out this won\u2019t be completely new territory for the indie. It has \u201calways been agile\u201d, she says, having previously produced the likes of Sky<\/a>\u2019s Billy Piper-led comedy drama I Hate Suzie alongside His Dark Materials.<\/p>\n The company is also striking deals with a wider range of buyers as it enters its second decade \u2013 in the first 10 years, Bad Wolf made content only for PSBs and Sky. Now, it\u2019s prepping Phillip Kerr adaptation Berlin Noir for Apple<\/a> TV+, and has what Tranter describes as \u201ca blinking green light\u201d on a show with Netflix<\/a>. She hints there\u2019s more in the works as well.<\/p>\n Managing director Dan McCulloch says this is indicative of the way the company is \u201csetting our sights on different challenges\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be talking, furry creatures, or \u2018how do you build the set for a financial institution in Wales and pretend it\u2019s London?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cNow it\u2019s going to be stunts and action on a Netflix show or it\u2019s going to be a period detective drama [Berlin Noir].\u201d<\/p>\n McCulloch points out that the company hasn\u2019t tackled a procedural, which Berlin Noir will be, and says that when it does the result will be distinctively \u2018Bad Wolf\u2019. \u201cThat\u2019s something we really pride ourselves in, being bold in different ways.\u201d<\/p>\n He rejects the idea that working to smaller budgets means diminishing expectations.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, we\u2019re an ambitious company, but it\u2019s not just a financial game. We\u2019re concerned with how do we best put ourselves out there and tell the stories we want to tell? It\u2019s by variation, by different types, which is why we\u2019re in a new era now.\u201d<\/p>\n To this end, the indie also plans to leverage its studio space. The facility \u2013 appropriately enough, a former factory producing parts for TV screens \u2013 was developed one sound stage at a time, depending on what was needed for a given production. Among them is the tallest stage in the UK, which currently houses the sprawling interior of the Tardis. Next door, the plate-glass and concrete offices from financial drama Industry look out onto wrap-around backdrops of the London skyline, giving the unnerving impression of being 15 storeys up.\u00a0<\/p>\n In hindsight, building the studio alongside the company was \u201cexpensive and phenomenally risky\u201d,\u201d Tranter says.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019d realised, we probably wouldn\u2019t have done it \u2013 but I wasn\u2019t clever enough. I was just intent on making Discovery of Witches and then His Dark Materials, which wouldn\u2019t have been possible without a studio environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Until this year the studio had never been used to house two productions simultaneously but that changed when series four of Industry was filmed alongside Pride and Prejudice spinoff The Other Bennet Sister.\u00a0<\/p>\n As Furlong points out: \u201cThere might not be a show with the longevity or crew size of HDM [in the future], but there\u2019ll be multiple shows, hopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n Ideally, she says, the label will produce around four shows a year. \u201cIt\u2019ll be chaos,\u201d Tranter jokes \u2013 but Furlong is confident that shows being shot simultaneously can be effectively segregated. The company has invested in separate wardrobe and dressing room facilities, for example, to prevent leaks between cast and crew.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the possibility of opening up sound stages to other companies\u2019 productions to generate additional income, McCulloch says.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s change in direction has also altered its development strategy. Where previously, siloed development teams worked separately on different projects, the top creative team [see boxout] now works across the entire slate, bringing in producers and other creatives at a later stage in the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n McCulloch says the change allows the company to work at volume, keep communication channels clear and give \u201cwriters the best possible service\u201d.<\/p>\n Tranter chimes in that the smaller core development team allows everyone to be across every project, so that \u201cwhen Dan sets a strategy for changing a budget direction or pushing project over the line, we can be working hand-in-glove with Mary, production and business affairs\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Furlong is involved from the get-go, searching for ways to de-risk development and ultimately get shows across the line.<\/p>\n \u201cMy job is to let the creative process happen and not burden them with finance as much as possible \u2013 but in the knowledge that I can pull them back when I need to,\u201d Furlong says.\u00a0<\/p>\n Anatomy of the wolf<\/p>\n Jane Tranter leads the company as chief executive, while her co-founder Gardner heads up Bad Wolf America, a separate entity launched in 2019, in which the UK company has a minority stake. While Gardner continues to support development of some shows and is credited as an executive producer on Red Eye, Doctor Who and its upcoming spinoff The War Between The Land and Sea, her focus is largely on America.\u00a0<\/p>\n Alongside Tranter on the senior leadership team sits McCulloch and Furlong, as well as director of production Emily Russell, director of legal, business affairs and operations Beth Wyllie, and former Casarotto literary agent Emma Obank, director of commercial, editorial and business development, who was recently promoted to the senior leadership team after 18 months with the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tranter and McCulloch are supported on the creative side by executive producer Kate Crowther (a \u201cstalwart figure in the company\u201d, McCulloch says), creative executive Becca Kinder, who started out as a script editor on His Dark Materials \u2013 currently being covered by producer Flynn MacDonell while on maternity leave \u2013 and development co-ordinator Nina Rutman, who started out as a script reader for the company while at university. Chief creative officer Ryan Rasmussen and executive producer Joel Collins sit alongside them, playing \u201ccrucial\u201d roles, McCulloch says.<\/p>\n At a time when drama financing is a hot topic, it\u2019s significant that an old-fashioned model served Bad Wolf well with Red Eye: thanks to a top tariff from ITV, the tax break and significant support from distributor Sony, the drama was produced without a major co-pro partner. It\u2019s the first time the indie has funded a show this way.<\/p>\n The gamble paid off, with the series selling into more than 120 countries and numerous second window deals being struck. The initial revenue expectations set by Sony Pictures Television were exceeded by 40%, and it delivered above its 10-year ultimate projections in less than a year.<\/p>\n The Other Bennet Sister, an adaptation of fellow former BBC exec Jane Hadlow\u2019s novel about an oft-overlooked Jane Austen character produced by Kate Crowther, has also been heavily backed by Sony and has been boarded by Britbox. It is due to go out on BBC1<\/a> next year.<\/p>\n Sticking with financial concerns, Tranter believes more can and should be done to support UK producers through the tax credit system.<\/p>\n She\u2019s been at the forefront of a campaign calling for HETV tax credits to be structured in a similar way to the Independent Film Tax Credit, offering support particularly for band two shows with budgets of between \u00a31.25m and \u00a33m per hour. These shows, she has argued, are particularly affected by rising production costs.<\/p>\n She argues that productions with the very biggest budgets arguably have more ways of securing financing: \u201cAt that level, it\u2019s your job as a producer to bring in the cast, to bring in all those different things that will help increase its saleability,\u201d she says. But while a bit of leg work might once have secured funding for smaller shows, that is no longer the case. And that\u2019s a problem, she says, as they are often the titles that are \u201cvery specifically holding a mirror up to the way we live now in the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n Without the tax credit being extended, she says, \u201call we are going to make are thrillers and police procedurals, which will be sold by the yard around the world\u201d. She believes drama is vital in the current political moment of distrust and misinformation: \u201cHumanity has always learned from telling stories to each other, and I truly believe stories will save us \u2013 so I think it\u2019s a particularly bad time not to be telling them.\u201d<\/p>\n The problem is particularly acute outside of London, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not a level playing field \u2013 it is more expensive to film in the nations and regions because you can\u2019t always expect to draw 100% of your crew base from the area,\u201d she says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how much Bad Wolf grows, all you need is one or two other productions down the road and someone will be looking to bring people over the bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n She acknowledges that there are currently a lot of competing priorities for the government, but, she says, the issue is \u201cdefinitely in play\u201d.<\/p>\n The future of Doctor Who<\/p>\n A key strand of revenue for Bad Wolf over the past few years has been producing Doctor Who for the BBC in the UK and Disney<\/a> around the world, at a reported cost of around \u00a310m per episode.<\/p>\n The 26-ep deal (two eight-episode series of the iconic franchise plus Christmas specials, alongside spinoff series The War Between the Land and The Sea) is nearing its completion, but Tranter is very calm about speculation around whether Disney will renew, and what that might mean for Bad Wolf\u2019s continued involvement (although the BBC has confirmed that the show itself will continue, with or without Disney).\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"WOLF](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1462561_wolfstudios1260_890852.jpg\")
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