Polly Leys and Kate Norrish set up Hillbilly Films and Television Ltd to produce feature
films and television drama. The company has an overhead and development deal with
talkbackThames and Fremantle Media.
The TV slate includes Random a single drama for Channel 4 written and directed by
acclaimed playwright Debbie Tucker Green which will broadcast in August 2011. Set over
the course of one day the film tells the story of an ordinary family on an ordinary day whose
lives are shattered by the impact of one random event.
Green lit as a 90’ single for BBC 4, Holy Flying Circus, written by Tony Roche (Thick of It,
Cast Offs & In the Loop) and directed by Owen Harris (Misfits, Secret Diary of a Call Girl),
is a fantastical re-imagining of the controversy surrounding the release of Monty Python’s
comedy classic Life of Brian.
Also on the TV development slate is Life’s Too Short an original contemporary romantic
comedy drama series commissioned by Sky and written by Rachel Bennette (Bel Ami & Lark
Rise to Candleford).
The Hillbilly Films slate includes romantic comedy All Our Christmases by Aschlin Ditta
(Scenes of a Sexual Nature, The Catherine Tate Show) in development with BBC Films. The
company is also under commission to Film Four for a Debbie Tucker Green untitled feature
film.
Leys and Norrish have a strong track record of working with both established and new
talent in film and television. Together they produced C4’s Coming Up strand for Channel 4.
Focussing on new writers and directors the 8x30’ television dramas include work by Jack
Thorne, Debbie Tucker Green, Kate Hardie, Tom Shkolnik, Ben Gregor, Tom Harper, Yann
Demange and Alecky Blythe.
Reviews said the dramas were ‘terrific’ (Time Out), ‘the standard impossibly high’ (The
Times) and ‘quite possibly the best thing Channel 4 have shown this year’ (The Observer).