ITV Encore reveals launch content
June 3, 2014
ITV has confirmed that its new pay-TV drama channel Encore will launch with shows including Broadchurch, The Ice Cream Girls and Lucan.
ITV Encore, which aims to be a showcase for the “best of contemporary British ITV drama”, will launch exclusively on Sky channel 123 on June 9th.
ITV has scheduled the first series of Broadchurch to be the centrepiece of ITV Encore’s launch. It will air in double bills from Monday through Thursday, marking the first time the series has been repeated since its original transmission more than a year ago.
The broadcaster has also lined up Mrs Biggs, which tells the story of Ronnie Biggs and the Great Train Robbery from the viewpoint of his wife, and the final four stories in David Suchet’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
“Drama is a genre that we know audiences love and we have worked with some fantastic talent, both on and off screen, to build a really strong stable of series and serials over the years,” said the ITV director of television, Peter Fincham. “ITV Encore will give viewers the opportunity to revisit, or indeed discover, a wealth of ITV drama from recent times.”
The schedule will also include The Ice Cream Girls, adapted from Dorothy Koomson’s novel, and biopic Lucan, starring Rory Kinnear. Whitechapel and DCI Banks will air from their first series.