The little black dress of British drama

Masterpiece is the ‘little black dress of British drama’

Eddie Redmayne’s best actor win at the Oscars is just the latest reminder that UK screen talent is in a period of extraordinary popularity and success in America. And if there’s one person who can lay credible claim to a best supporting actor credit for this latest British creative wave to hit the US, it’s Rebecca Eaton.

Eaton is the executive producer of Masterpiece, the Sunday evening drama strand on US public service broadcasting network PBS, currently enjoying ratings unprecedented in its 44-year history thanks to UK imports including Downton Abbey and Sherlock.

For 30 years Eaton has been the Masterpiece gatekeeper, co-producing UK drama with partners including the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 and providing a US shop window for the best of British acting, writing, producing and directing talent. Many US viewers are likely to have been first introduced to Redmayne when Masterpiece broadcast the BBC’s Birdsong adaptation in 2012; ditto his Theory of Everything co-star Felicity Jones in Northanger Abbey (2008) and Sherlock, Star Trek and The Hobbit actor Benedict Cumberbatch in To The Ends of the Earth (2006). Eaton gave her take on the enduring appeal of UK drama to US audiences in her 2013 memoir, Making Masterpiece: "British accents, the way you talk, the orderliness, appeals to us unruly Americans … You are at a different stage, at the end of your empire, looking back on it. The way you approach British culture, revere writers, literature, that appeals."

She expanded on Masterpiece’s place in the transatlantic TV ecology in a recent interview, sandwiched between meetings with producers, on one of her regular talent scouting visits to London: "Masterpiece is like the little black dress of British drama: we are always in fashion, elegant in style, reliable. All in all, I think Masterpiece has put half a billion dollars into British drama. Either via financing it, acquiring rights or publicity, by flying over the casts to meet the American press."

The strand launched (with BBC costume drama The First Churchills) as Masterpiece Theatre in 1971 as a regular slot for British output, prompted by the ratings success PBS experienced with The Forsyte Saga. It is overseen by WGBH Boston, Eaton’s employer and one of the biggest players among the 350-odd public service TV stations within PBS’s federal structure. PBS is a not-for-profit broadcaster and relies largely on donations for its funding, though from the outset Masterpiece was sponsored by the oil company Mobil. Eaton’s career and Masterpiece could have been blighted when Mobil ("our sugar daddy") pulled out in 2004. Around the same time, she recalls, there was also a dearth of quality British period drama. The fightback began with a relaunch in 2008 (when "Theatre" was dropped from the strand’s branding) involving a Complete Jane Austen season of BBC and ITV adaptations – including Jones in Northanger Abbey and the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride and Prejudice.

However, Downton, first aired by Masterpiece in January 2011, was the real game changer, helping to attract new sponsors Viking River Cruises and Ralph Lauren. Masterpiece’s ratings were immediately boosted by more than 50% and by 2013 the third series of the country house drama was attracting 8 million viewers - PBS’s biggest ever audience. The US TV premiere of the fifth series last month attracted just over 10 million.

Things might have turned out differently. Eaton said no to an initial approach about co-producing Downton in 2009 because she had picked the BBC’s ill-fated revival of Upstairs Downstairs. However, she changed course in 2010 when she heard from director Simon Curtis (married to Elizabeth McGovern, aka Lady Grantham) how well Downton was developing.

Will Downton’s sixth series, now in production, be the last? "I don’t know," she replies, and her ignorance sounds genuine. "We want it to go to 60 seasons," she half-jokes, "because there is no flagging in the interest of our audience, they are still addicted to it, obsessed. They love it and want more."

Downton, along with other British dramas including Sherlock, has helped refresh Masterpiece’s ageing audience, attracting "smart girls" – college-educated 25-34s – and men. "And they stayed the next week, when Downton wasn’t on. So PBS said, ‘let’s foster it’," Eaton says.

As a result from January Eaton’s Sunday night drama slot, traditionally the hour from 9pm, was expanded, with UK imports also broadcast at 8pm (family drama including Call the Midwife) and 10pm (more edgy contemporary output). "We’re increasing, by about 50%, [adding] at least an additional 20 hours on top of the 45 hours" a year Masterpiece currently selects.

ITV’s Grantchester is airing after Downton at 10pm, where the BBC’s Wolf Hall adaptation will follow in April. Mr Selfridge is returning and Eaton has Indian Summers and Poldark lined up for Sunday nights later in the year.

Eaton also launched the Masterpiece Trust three years ago, which has raised $12m, from 45 donors, who pledge a minimum $25,000. Two of them are giving $1m a year – with proceeds split 50/50 with PBS.

Although she’s cagey about details, the traditional Masterpiece co-production model is to put up 10% of the budget (which suggests a contribution of around $1m to six-part Grantchester, which costs £1.1m an episode, with ITV putting in around 70%). Masterpiece’s 10% earns it the right to be consulted on casting and other creative decisions, though not control. But it does provide the opportunity to initiate projects, or to double investment in return for more rights, more clout in a marketplace being transformed by Netflix and Amazon Prime.

The increased competition for the cream of British drama output from these digital interlopers, and others including US cable broadcasters such as HBO and AMC, means Eaton has to be on her toes. One that got away from PBS recently was the forthcoming BBC adaptation of War and Peace, with Harvey Weinstein coming in as a major co-producer, alongside the UK’s Lookout Point.

However, Eaton is unfazed, pointing out that the UK’s new drama tax breaks "make it easier to raise money" for transatlantic co-productions. "I think there is room for all, there is so much more high-end drama coming out of here than before, I feel we are spoilt for choice." She also believes Masterpiece’s "quill pen" approach, majoring on high-end literary adaptations, will remain relevant in the online age of catchup, downloads and bingeing on digital box sets.

Eaton, 67 – a "very classy dame" according to Kenneth Branagh, star of the BBC’s Wallander, another Masterpiece co-producton – has postponed her retirement and appears to be in empire-building mode with the recent expansion of her funding and output. "I’ve fallen in love with Masterpiece again."

queenie girls bridesmaid dresses | yellow bridesmaid dresses

Life consists not in holding good cards, but in playing well those you hold. keep your friends close,but your enemies closer.