Bearing fruit: What’s next for Orchard Studios
Lineker indie’s top team chat to Broadcast about journalistic rigour, staying true to roots and need for scale
In October 2023, Dan Grabiner, head of UK originals at Amazon Prime Video, stepped down to launch Orchard Films, alongside former chief executive of The Garden Nicola Hill.
Grabiner was feted as one of the streamer’s star players, and the market was looking decidedly inhospitable – but despite all of this, he says, the moment was right to fulfil his long-held ambition of setting up his own indie.
Two-and-half years in, the gamble appears to be paying off. Orchard has scored a total of 13 commissions, across PSBs and streamers, winning the RTS East Specialist Factual Award for its BBC2 documentary about The Day of the Jackal author, Frederick Forsyth: In My Own Words, which was also longlisted for a Grierson Award. The company’s debut commission Untold UK: Jamie Vardy – which was greenlit a while ago but only announced in May – has sky-rocketed their profile. The 90-minute single, the first UK instalment of Netflix’s successful sporting doc strand Untold, and went straight to Netflix’s number one UK film slot.