Lime Pictures, formerly known as Mersey Television, is a British television production company, founded by producer and writer
Phil Redmond
Sir Philip Redmond (born 10 June 1949) is an English television producer and screenwriter from Huyton, England. He is known for creating the television series ''Grange Hill'', ''Brookside'' and ''Hollyoaks''.
Early life
Redmond took the 11-pl ...
in the early 1980s. They produce award winning drama, and entertainment shows, for the international market including ''
Hollyoaks
''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on ...
'', ''
The Only Way is Essex
''The Only Way Is Essex'' (often abbreviated as ''TOWIE'' ) is a British reality television series based in Brentwood, Essex, England. It shows "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." Originally b ...
'', ''
Geordie Shore
''Geordie Shore'' is
a British reality television series that was broadcast on MTV between 24 May 2011 and 22 November 2022. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England it was the British offshoot of the American show ''Jersey Shore''. The programm ...
'' and ''
Free Rein
''Free Rein'' is a British drama television series created and written by Vicki Lutas and Anna McCleery.
It stars Jaylen Barron, Navia Robinson (seasons 1-2) and Freddy Carter.
Produced in the UK by Lime Pictures, the ten-part first series prem ...
''.
Mersey Television productions
![Entrance to Lime Pictures](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/Entrance_to_Lime_Pictures.jpg)
Mersey Television's first major production was the soap opera ''
Brookside Brookside may refer to:
Geography Canada
* Brookside, Edmonton
* Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador
* Brookside, Nova Scotia
United Kingdom
* Brookside, Berkshire, England
* Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England
United States
* Br ...
'' for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
, which ran from the channel's foundation in 1982 until 2003, when it was taken off air due to declining ratings. A 3-part spin-off ('soap bubble') of ''Brookside'' was produced in November 1987 called ''
Damon and Debbie
''Damon and Debbie'' is a three-part spin-off from the Channel 4 soap opera ''Brookside'' first broadcast in November 1987. A Mersey Television production, it was written by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, directed by Bob Carlton, and produced by Colin Mc ...
''.
In 1995, the company began producing a second soap opera for Channel 4, ''
Hollyoaks
''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. Since 2005, episodes have been aired on ...
'', which still runs.
Both ''Brookside'' and ''Hollyoaks'' were created by Redmond himself, and in 2003 the company took over production of another series he had created, the children's drama ''
Grange Hill
''Grange Hill'' is a British Children's television series, children's television drama series, originally produced by the BBC and portraying life in a typical Comprehensive school (England and Wales), comprehensive school. The show began its ru ...
'', which had first been broadcast on
BBC1
BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...
in 1978 and had been made in-house by the BBC until Mersey Television took over. The company moved production of the series to their
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
base, with the fictional school no longer being established as in London but instead an unspecified UK location.
North West Television franchise bid
In 1991 Mersey Television under the name of North West Television made an audacious bid during the
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
network franchise auction to win the Channel 3 licence in the
North West England
North West England is one of nine official regions of England and consists of the ceremonial counties of England, administrative counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. The North West had a population of ...
from holders
Granada Television
ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
. Granada had held the North West franchise ever since the inception of independent television in the 1950s, and Granada was one of the biggest and the most established of the ITV companies. Granada was also a popular production company and it came second only to the BBC to find the most respected British television company amongst the British public.
The bid was supported financially by
Yorkshire Television
ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
and
Tyne Tees Television
ITV Tyne Tees, previously known as Tyne Tees, Channel 3 North East and Tyne Tees Television, is the ITV (TV network), ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire.
Tyne Tees launched on 15 January 1959 from stud ...
and the bid had aimed to provide a more balanced television service for the North West, in particular featuring more content from
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
as opposed to
Manchester
Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
. However, although North West Television bid more money for the franchise totalling £35 million as opposed to Granada's £9 million, the licence stayed with Granada as the
Independent Television Commission
The Independent Television Commission (ITC) licensed and regulated commercial television services in the United Kingdom (except S4C in Wales) between 1 January 1991 and 28 December 2003.
History
The creation of ITC, by the Broadcasting Act ...
declared that the Mersey Television bid did not meet the required quality threshold.
Furthermore, Granada were aware of Mersey Television's attempts to gain the North West franchise and built defences to avoid the loss of the licence they had owned for decades.
New franchises which had no experience of owning an ITV franchise (Mersey Television was one such example) would have to a pass a "quality hurdle" that Granada executives actually helped the ITC adopt.
Granada also had a well known catalogue of productions including ''
Prime Suspect
''Prime Suspect'' is a British police procedural television drama series devised by Lynda La Plante. It stars Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, one of the first female Detective Chief Inspectors in Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service, who ...
'', ''
Cracker
Cracker, crackers or The Crackers may refer to:
Animals
* ''Hamadryas'' (butterfly), or crackers, a genus of brush-footed butterflies
* '' Sparodon'', a monotypic genus whose species is sometimes known as "Cracker"
Arts and entertainment Films ...
'', ''
World in Action
''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television for ITV from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its producti ...
'' and ''
Coronation Street
''Coronation Street'' is an English soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9 December 1960. The programme centres around a cobbled, terraced street in Weatherfield, a fictional town based on inner-city Salford.
Origi ...
'' and if Mersey Television had gained the franchise, then Granada would have sold these to satellite television. It did not happen.
Lime Pictures
Mersey Television was bought by
All3Media
All3Media Limited is a British worldwide independent television, film and digital production and distribution company based in London, England. The All3Media group comprises more than 40 production and distribution companies from across the U ...
in June 2005 and, in a contractual requirement, renamed ''Lime Pictures'' in 2006. Since then the company has produced the following series:
* In 2007, Lime Pictures produced an eight-part series called ''
Living on the Edge'', documenting the real lives of a group of teenagers in Cheshire, which was shown on
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
.
* In 2007, they produced the short-lived
ITV
ITV or iTV may refer to:
ITV
*Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of:
** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
sitcom ''
Bonkers''.
* In 2008, they produced the first (and so far, only) series of ''
Apparitions
Apparition may refer to:
Supernatural
*Apparitional experience, an anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience
* A vision, something seen in a dream, trance, or religious ecstasy
*Ghost, the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear ...
'', starring
Martin Shaw
Martin Shaw (born 21 January 1945) is an English actor. He came to national recognition as Doyle in ITV (TV network), ITV crime-action television drama series ''The Professionals (TV series), The Professionals'' (1977–1983). Further notable ...
as an exorcist.
* In 2009, they produced the BBC Switch reality drama ''The Season'' filmed in
Val-d'Isère
Val-d'Isère (, literally ''Valley of Isère'') is a commune of the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region) in southeastern France. It lies from the border with Italy. It is on the border of the Vanoise Nationa ...
.
* In 2010, Lime Pictures produced a pilot episode for the
E4 sitcom ''Sex and the Chippy'', written by Heather Robson and Neil Jones.
* Since 2010, Lime Pictures have produced the award-winning reality series ''
The Only Way Is Essex
''The Only Way Is Essex'' (often abbreviated as ''TOWIE'' ) is a British reality television series based in Brentwood, Essex, England. It shows "real people in modified situations, saying unscripted lines but in a structured way." Originally b ...
'' for
ITV2
ITV2 is a British free-to-air television channel owned by ITV Digital Channels, a division of ITV plc. It was launched on 7 December 1998. For a number of years, it had the largest audience share after the five analogue terrestrial stations, a ...
.
* Through 2011 to 2013, Lime Pictures, along with
Nickelodeon Productions
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. Its p ...
and
Studio 100
Studio 100 is a Belgian production company with four television channels, four animation studios and 8 theme parks around the world. The headquarters of the group is based in Schelle, with offices in Breda, Munich, Paris, New York, Sydney and Lo ...
, produced ''
House of Anubis
''House of Anubis'' is a Mystery fiction, mystery television series developed for Nickelodeon based on the Dutch–Belgian television series ''Het Huis Anubis''. The series was created by Hans Bourlon and Gert Verhulst and premiered on Nickel ...
'', which aired on
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
.
* From 2011 to 2022, Lime Pictures produced ''
Geordie Shore
''Geordie Shore'' is
a British reality television series that was broadcast on MTV between 24 May 2011 and 22 November 2022. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England it was the British offshoot of the American show ''Jersey Shore''. The programm ...
'' for MTV in the UK and Ireland.
* From 2011 to 2014, Lime Pictures produced ''
Rocket's Island
''Rocket's Island'' is a British television series, created by Nick Leather about a family taking care of foster children. It stars Jordan Benjamin, Samuel Bottomley, Jack Hartley, Tom Coliandris, Helen Daniels and Joe Gallucci. It was produced ...
'' for
CBBC
CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
.
* From 2014 to 2016, ''
The Evermoor Chronicles'' were produced for
Disney Channel
Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...
.
* Since 2016, Lime Pictures have produced ''
Celebs Go Dating
''Celebs Go Dating'' is a British dating reality series. It began broadcasting on 29 August 2016 on E4, with the first series having 15 episodes. Paul Carrick Brunson and Anna Williamson currently appear as the dating agents, with Tom Read Wi ...
'' for E4.
* In 2017, they began producing ''
Free Rein
''Free Rein'' is a British drama television series created and written by Vicki Lutas and Anna McCleery.
It stars Jaylen Barron, Navia Robinson (seasons 1-2) and Freddy Carter.
Produced in the UK by Lime Pictures, the ten-part first series prem ...
'' for
Netflix
Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
.
* In 2021, they produced ''
Hollyoaks IRL'' for
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
. The series has been nominated for a
BAFTA TV award, in the Short-form programme category.
Awards and nominations
References
{{reflist, 1
External links
Official websiteConker MediaAll3Media''Hollyoaks'' website''Grange Hill'' website (archived)
All3Media
Companies based in Liverpool
Mass media companies established in 1982
Television production companies of the United Kingdom