Plimsoll
HEADQUARTERS
Bristol, UK
NUMBER OF HOURS PRODUCED IN 2023
79
STAFF
120 (full-time and freelance)
UPCOMING TITLES
Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters (ITV)
The non-fiction powerhouse, which joined the ITV Studios portfolio in 2022, maintained its status as an elite player in the wildlife and natural history space in 2023, with such titles as Super/Natural (Nat Geo/Disney+), executive produced by James Cameron and featuring narration from Benedict Cumberbatch; the Emmy-nominated Animal for Netflix; Incredible Animal Journeys and A Real Bug’s Life for Disney+, featuring narration from Jeremy Renner and Awkwafina, respectively; and, also for Disney+, the vertiginous outdoor adventure doc Arctic Ascent with Alex Honnold.
Taking its natural history expertise into genre-blend territory, Plimsoll also partnered with horror specialist Blumhouse to develop a new factual series called Nightmares of Nature, spotlighting the gruesome and eerie aspects of the natural world. In a similar spirit of the sinister, the company produced the true-crime series Victorian Murder Files for Warner Bros. Discovery UK & Ireland, which debuted on Quest Red early this year.
Coming up: a light-hearted venture into the deep with ITV’s Shark! Celebrity Infested Waters, which will see a group of shark-fearing celebs attempting to overcome their fears of the bullet-nosed predators. AT
Looking back, looking forward: Plimsoll CEO Grant Mansfield cites A Real Bug’s Life as a high point of the past year: “I’m incredibly proud of our producers work on that show — a big hit on Disney+ — and also hugely appreciative of the innovative, and hugely entertaining, way Disney and National Geographic marketed the series,” he says.
Mansfield is also heartened by the amount of new work in development despite current market conditions. On the flipside, “although there is work to be won it’s tough, evidenced by the sad fact that some good companies have gone out of business and many talented freelancers are struggling to find work.”