 | |
| Company type | Limited company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Television production |
| Founded | 1986 |
| Founders | |
| Headquarters | London, England, UK |
Key people | Geoffrey Perkins (former director) |
| Website | hattrick |
Hat Trick Productions Limited [1] is an independent British production company that produces television and radio programmes, mainly specialising in comedy, based in London. [2] [3] The company's logo is depicted as a rabbit pulling a man out of a hat instead of the other way around.
Hat Trick Productions was founded in 1986 by Rory McGrath, Jimmy Mulville, [4] and Denise O'Donoghue. Its first commission was Chelmsford 123 , a situation comedy for Channel 4. [5] Two years later, Geoffrey Perkins became company director, and helped to produce shows such as Father Ted , Whose Line Is It Anyway? , and Have I Got News for You . [6] Perkins left the organisation in 1995, to become head of comedy for BBC Television. [6]
Hat Trick International struck a first look deal with Cardiff Productions [7] and has a joint venture with British television writer Jed Mercurio called HTM Television, [8] with this production company responsible for dramas such as Bloodlands [9] [10] with James Nesbitt and the forthcoming DI Ray with Parminder Nagra. [11] [12]
ITV, legally known as Channel 3, is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network. It is branded as ITV1 in most of the UK except for central and northern Scotland, where it is branded as STV. It was launched in 1955 as Independent Television to provide competition, eliminating what had been the monopoly of BBC Television. ITV is the oldest commercial network in the UK. Since the passing of the Broadcasting Act 1990, it has been legally known as Channel 3 to distinguish it from the other analogue channels at the time: BBC1, BBC2 and Channel 4.
Whose Line is it Anyway? is a short-form improvisational comedy television panel show created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, presented by Clive Anderson, and produced for Channel 4 between 23 September 1988 and 4 February 1999. The programme features a panel of four performers,, conducting a series of short-form improvisation games, creating comedic scenes per predetermined situations made by the host or from suggestions by the audience. Such games include creating sound effects, performing a scene to different television and film styles, using props, and making up a song on the spot. The programme originally began as a short-lived BBC radio programme, before the concept was adapted for television.
Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY) is a British television panel show, produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC, which premiered on 28 September 1990.
Patrick Rory McGrath is a British comedian, television personality, and writer. He came to prominence in the comedy show Who Dares Wins and was a regular panellist on the game show They Think It's All Over for many years. He acted in the sitcom Chelmsford 123 and appeared in the ITV reality show Sugar Free Farm.
Geoffrey Howard Perkins was a British comedy producer, writer and performer. He was BBC head of comedy between 1995 and 2001, and produced the first two radio series of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. He is one of the people credited with creating the panel game Mornington Crescent for I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue. In December 2008 he posthumously received an Outstanding Contribution to Comedy Award.
Bodies is a British television medical drama produced by Hat Trick Productions for the BBC. Created by Jed Mercurio, the series first broadcast on 23 June 2004, and is based on Mercurio's book of the same name. The series is centred on specialist registrar Rob Lake, who starts in a new post in the Obstetrics and gynaecology department at the fictional South Central Infirmary, under the guidance of consultant obstetrician Roger Hurley.
Tony Declan James Slattery is an English actor and comedian. He appeared on British television regularly from the mid-1980s, most notably as a regular on the Channel 4 improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway?. His serious and comedic film work has included roles in The Crying Game, Peter's Friends and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.
Denise O'Donoghue, OBE is a British television production company executive.
James Thomas Mulville is an English comedian, comedy writer, producer and television presenter. He is best known for co-founding the British independent television production company Hat Trick Productions with Denise O'Donoghue and Rory McGrath. In 2003, Mulville and O'Donoghue, as co-founders of Hat Trick, were listed in The Observer as two of the 50 funniest people in Britain.
Tiger Aspect Productions is a British television and film production company, particularly noted for its situation comedies. Founded by Peter Bennett-Jones, its productions have included popular hits such as Mr. Bean and The Vicar of Dibley. The present-day company was founded in 1993 from the merger of Bennett-Jones' Tiger Television and Paul Sommers' Aspect Film & Television.
The 2002 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 21 April 2002. The ceremony was hosted by the television presenter Chris Tarrant and broadcast on ITV the following day.
The 2006 British Academy Television Awards were held on Sunday 7 May at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. The ceremony was hosted by television presenter Davina McCall and broadcast on ITV the following day. The nominees for the audience-voted Pioneer Award were announced on Tuesday 14 March; other nominees were revealed on Monday 27 March.
Stephen James Mangan is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge, Seán Lincoln in Episodes, Bigwig in Watership Down, Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie, Richard Pitt in Hang Ups, Andrew in Bliss (2018), and Nathan Stern in The Split (2018–2022).
Andrew Mark O'Connor is an English actor, comedian, magician, television presenter and executive producer.
Gerald Gary Mercurio is a British television writer, producer, director and novelist. A former hospital doctor and Royal Air Force officer, Mercurio has been ranked among UK television's leading writers. In 2017, Mercurio was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Television Society and the Baird Medal by RTS Midlands.
Left Bank Pictures Ltd. is a British film and television production company owned by Sony Pictures Television. It was formed in 2007 and was the first British media company to receive investment from BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC.
Christopher John Hall is an English television producer. He has produced dramas primarily for the BBC, ITV, Sky and Channel 4 networks, and worked for major British production companies, including Kudos, Carnival Films, Hat Trick Productions, World Productions and Tiger Aspect Productions.
Cheap Cheap Cheap is a British television game show produced by Hat Trick Productions for Channel 4, presented and created by Noel Edmonds. Billed as "a game show that thinks it's a sitcom", the show takes place in a fictional general store and centres on a game show, hosted by the store owner (Edmonds). He is joined by the shop's eccentric staff, played by actors who appear throughout the game.
Bloodlands is a police procedural television series set in Northern Ireland that premiered on BBC One on 21 February 2021. It was created by Chris Brandon and developed by HTM Television, a joint venture between Hat Trick Productions and the producer Jed Mercurio. The show was renewed for a second series on 14 March 2021, with filming commencing in February 2022.
Stephen, also titled Conviction: The Case of Stephen Lawrence, is a 2021 British three-part limited crime drama TV series. It is the sequel to the 1999 TV film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence. It stars Steve Coogan, Sharlene Whyte and Hugh Quarshie. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Joe Cottrell Boyce and directed by Alrick Riley. The series was produced for ITV by HTM Television, a joint venture between Hat Trick Productions and the producer Jed Mercurio.
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