The six-part documentary series for Channel 5 will be co-produced by Sideline along with GroupM Entertainment. The series looks at six of Britain’s best-loved castles and is set to begin production in March with its broadcast in early 2015. Sideline’s co-founder and ex-commissioner of entertainment for RTÉ Billy McGrath said, “It will be produced from and edited in Ireland.”
Sideline is one of Ireland’s top multimedia companies that specialises in factual, lifestyle and entertainment programming. They also produce large-scale reality based shows such as ‘Take Me Out’, ‘Mastermind’ and ‘The Great Irish Bake Off’.
Sideline have also made a similarly themed factual programme for TV3 called ‘Tales of Irish Castles’, which is due to air in the spring. The Irish show is hosted by Simon Delaney while the UK show will be hosted by Dan Jones, London based historian and award-winning journalist , as part of a deal to front a number of history series for the Northern & Shell-owned broadcaster.
The executive producers on ‘Great British Castles’ are Gerry Kelly & Billy McGrath for Sideline; Tony Moulsdale and Abigail Adams for GroupM Entertainment whilst series director is Gerry Hoban and the producer is Una Shinners.
Sideline will also be heading to the Realscreen Summit in Washington DC next week, the biggest non-fiction TV market in the US, to pitch new projects including ‘The Food Fairy’, ‘The Giant DIY Challenge’ and ‘Rock N Roll Truckers’.
