Fifth Season is expanding its U.K. production footprint through the acquisition of The Story Collective.
Launched in 2021 with Fifth Season’s backing by Damian Keogh, Simon Vaughan, Helen Jackson and Jonathan Norman, the UK-based film and TV studio is behind the Stephen Graham-led “A Thousand Blows,” which is created by Steven Knight for Disney+/Hulu and launched its second season on Jan. 9.
The Story Collective’s forthcoming projects, which will now sit under Fifth Season’s U.K. studio arm, include shows in development at Apple, BBC, Sky, Netflix, Channel 4, Britbox and Sky Showtime. It also boasts creative partnerships with Tom Davis and James de Frond’s Mighty Pebble Pictures and Ben Donald’s Cosmopolitan Pictures.
Meanwhile, Fifth Season’s current UK production slate includes work in development with Netflix, Sky, Channel 4, Starz, and Prime Video. The studio’s notable credits include series such as “Severance,” “His & Hers,” “Nine Perfect Strangers,” “Tokyo Vice,” “Omnivore” and films like “Book Club,” “The Lost Daughter,” “Nonnas” and “Friendship.”
Keogh, who will remain CEO of The Story Collective, will join Fifth Season as its senior vice president and managing director of international scripted. He will work in a strategic capacity across a range of international projects from Fifth Season’s TV studio and distribution divisions.
Meanwhile, Ben Irving will continue to lead Fifth Season’s U.K. development and production slate as SVP and creative director of international scripted. The pair will work closely together on continuing to build the studio’s U.K. and international production activities.
A consolidated senior leadership team — including The Story Collective’s Elouise West and Natasha Neill and Fifth Season’s Charlotte Bloxham — will now collaborate across both slates, leading on business affairs, finance and production, respectively, from Fifth Season’s London office.Keogh and Irving both report to Fifth Season CEO Graham Taylor.
“The Story Collective was built by Damian, Simon, and Helen on an ethos of creative collaboration, which we backed and have admired from its inception – and it feels like a natural evolution to be consolidating in this way four years later, as we double down on our ambitions as a UK studio,” Taylor said in a statement. Fifth Season’s offering now has even greater firepower, and an undeniable nexus of talent connections and projects to put our weight behind.”
“We set the company up to partner with great creative talent and producers wholeheartedly and with a patient, nurturing, and supportive ethos. We really believe in the team sport of it all and are proud of the roster of people and projects we have assembled in our Collective,” Keogh added. “Fifth Season has always recognised and encouraged our approach, and it’s a natural and exciting next step to be joining forces, and I am looking forward to working more closely with Graham, Ben, and other Fifth Season colleagues.”
As part of the sale, Vaughan is exiting to start a new creative content studio called Storyworks, where he and his team will build profile scripted productions from LA and London.
Storyworks will have a first-look deal with Fifth Season and work alongside The Story Collective on certain pre-existing projects.
“It is exciting to see The Story Collective being consolidated within Fifth Season to help deliver the scaled enterprise we all set out to build together when we formed the company four years ago,” Vaughan said. “And also exciting for my new venture to be partnering with Fifth Season from the off – the projects on our combined slates going forward are truly extraordinary and I sense that the best is yet to come.”
