US SVOD service joins BBC drama

US best of British SVOD service Acorn has become the US partner on Love, Lies & Records, the upcoming drama from Kay Mellor.

Acorn will run the show as an original in the US on its subscription service. It has been ramping up originals on the platform, with three last year and five already in 2017.

Mellor (Fat Friends, The Syndicate) is writing and Ashley Jensen, who starred in BBC-Acorn copro Agatha Raisin, will take the lead role.

UK indie Rollem is producing the six-part series, which will follow Registrar Kate Dickenson (Jensen) as she juggles personal life with her daily work across births, deaths and marriages. Shooting gets underway next month and All3Media is handling distribution.

Acorn is owned by RLJ, which owns and manages the Agatha Christie catalogue.

Shane Murphy, who joined Acorn Media Enterprises as MD last year, said: “We’re thrilled to work with Kay Mellor, Rollem Productions and all3media International on this exciting, star-studded production. Given the popularity of our first Acorn TV Original Series, Agatha Raisin, with our subscribers, we’re thrilled to offer them another first-rate series starring Ashley Jensen.”

Acorn has acquired BBC shows including The Secret Agent and has been a production partner on episodes of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and the BBC series Agatha Christie’s Partners in Crime.

The latest BBC deal comes in the same week that the UK pubcaster’s commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, announced pricing and management details of its own US best of British SVOD service, Britbox.

UK broadcaster ITV is also a partner in Britbox, as is US cable net AMC. The latter recently sank US$65 million into Acorn, which has about 375,000 subs.