One-trick ponies?

As celebrities continue to launch their own production companies, Stephen Arnell considers the offers and questions whether they should stick to what they know best or boldly go where no-one has gone before

With the Sussexes, Obamas, and David Beckham all having recently launched their own production companies, it would be fair to say that the world hasn’t exactly been knocked for six by the shows that they’ve announced so far.

Fair enough, you might say, keep to the subjects you know about, but would anyone really be interested if they weren’t plugged by the star power of the producers?

Of the three, former President Obama’s Higher Ground offers the most promise, although the worthy nature of their production slate is a little on the ‘eat your greens’ side.

To their credit, last year, Higher Ground’s American Factory won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, which is fairly astounding for their first project out of the gate.

Although Obama’s Renegades podcast with Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen has attracted criticism, mainly regarding the vacuity of the content. Saturday Night Live recently spoofed the show’s occasionally torpid pace.

Upcoming movie Worth (not a biopic of the late comedian Harry Worth), about famed dispute resolution attorney Kenneth Roy Feinberg (played by Michael Keaton) sounds a little on the dull side, but bear in mind that his career has encompassed the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and the Volkswagen emission scandal.

Prince Harry and Meghan kick-off their Archewell Productions with the documentary series Hearts of Invictus, following the build up to the next tournament in The Hague in 2022.

The Duke of Sussex founded the Invictus Games back in 2014.

Not a huge surprise and not something that I would make a point of watching, but different strokes and all that.

Personally, I’d like to see Harry use his experiences in Afghanistan to produce a screen adaptation of George MacDonald Fraser’s first Flashman novel, which is set during the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42).

And no need to look for a leading man, as Dominic ‘The Wire’ West has been champing at the bit to play the cad Flashy, even going to the extent of dressing up as the character in 2014 to promote a sale of George MacDonald Fraser’s library.

As you do.

Certainly, the Eton educated West would seem a good fit with Harry, although the actor’s more rakish behaviour may be frowned upon by the Duchess.

Turning to David Beckham, his new production company Studio 99 has announced three new projects (Save Our Squad, Inside Inter Miami, and A Whole New Ball Game), all of which revolve around football, with a fourth, World War Shoe, about the rivalry between Adidas and Puma.

Fascinating stuff, but if it keeps Beckham from essaying any more acting efforts in the likes of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), we should perhaps be thankful.

Going back to the Sussexes, they do have a warning from history in the sad tale of Harry’s uncle Ed Windsor’s Ardent production company.

The stage-struck Prince started the outfit with the intent of using his royal connections sparingly (‘You’re not going to see a rush of royal programmes’), breaking from expectations with the Channel 4 parliamentary sitcom Annie’s Bar (1996), which unfortunately bombed with both audiences and critics.

In 1998 Ardent then produced an adaptation of Anne Perry’s The Cater Street Hangman for ITV, which was overshadowed by the recent revelation that the author was formerly Juliet Marion Hulme, who was convicted in 1954 for participating with her friend Pauline Parker in the murder of Parker’s mother Honorah in New Zealand.

Inevitably Edward was then forced to churn-out and front a slew of profiles on his forebears and family.

Then there’s Jamie Oliver, who, excepting his restaurant chain, has enjoyed great success with his seemingly never-ending stream of cookery shows and books.

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Back in 2013 Jamie ventured out of the kitchen via Fresh Pictures to co-produce the prestigious 4-part WWII thriller Spies of Warsaw (BBC4) which starred David Tennant.

But I guess Oliver then decided that he should be front and centre of every show when he changed Fresh One Productions to Jamie Oliver Productions.

He continues to plough his lucrative trade, saving on the pennies last year by indenturing his wife and offspring into crewing his Jamie: Keep Cooking and Carry On (Ch4) during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Typically, Oliver moaned about the experience of using mobile phones for cameras, although one would think he would have a few RED digital cameras lying around on his vast 70-acre estate.

Or, could have commanded a furloughed JOP employee to drop one off by the shuttered gates of stately Spain Hall.

Or barring that, put his hand in his pocket and hired one.

On a final note, some industry eyebrows were raised ‘the full quarter inch’ (Eric Pickles) in 2015 when Channel 4 decided to devote a healthy chunk of its growth fund into Whisper Films, the sports-devoted indie, co-owned by multi-millionaire racing driver David Coulthard.

Funny old world, as the saying goes.