NENT Studios UK secures rights to new Manhunt series
March 5, 2021
Further to ITV’s announcement last November that it had commissioned a second season of the hit Martin Clunes drama Manhunt, NENT Studios UK can confirm that not only has it secured the rights to the new series, Manhunt II: The Night Stalker, but also that it has finalised several key early deals.
NENT Studios UK has negotiated co-production funding from AMC Networks’ Acorn TV for North and South America, as well as from the Seven Network in Australia. In addition, pre-sales have been made to DR TV in Denmark, VRT in Belgium, SVT in Sweden, Filmin in Spain, NRK in Norway and NOS in the Netherlands.
Both Manhunt and Manhunt II: The Night Stalker are produced by Buffalo Pictures and written, and executive produced, by Ed Whitmore (Silent Witness, Rillington Place, Strike Back). Martin Clunes reprises his critically acclaimed and ratings-winning role as the former London Metropolitan Police detective DCI Colin Sutton.
Manhunt II: The Night Stalker, a four-part drama, is the real-life story of the police pursuit of a notorious serial rapist whose 17-year reign of terror left thousands of elderly people in south east London living in fear. It is based on the diaries of Colin Sutton and is an important case that he became involved in just before his retirement from the Force. This inquiry has a very different emphasis to the Levi Bellfield case explored in Manhunt; the victims were elderly, and the crimes were unsolved for many years. The drama explores how Colin came late to the inquiry and helped solve it in a matter of weeks, taking an incredibly dangerous serial rapist off the streets.
Elin Thomas, EVP sales at NENT Studios UK says: “With its painstaking portrayal of a real-life criminal investigation, the first series of Manhunt successfully gripped viewers around the world, so we are thrilled to represent a second series of this calibre. With the same creative team at the helm and Martin Clunes back as DCI Sutton, it’s no surprise that this new season has attracted such strong early interest with key broadcasters and platforms in the US, Australia and Europe.”
Manhunt II: The Night Stalker will premiere later this year on ITV in the UK and on streaming service Acorn TV in North and South America. The first series of Manhunt attracted an average audience of nine million viewers on ITV and was the highest-rated new drama on any UK channel during 2019, as well as one of Acorn TV’s most popular titles that year.