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Anne Mensah, Netflix’s U.Ok. VP of content material materials, is no doubt one of many streamer’s most senior U.Ok. executives, overseeing scripted, unscripted, film and acquisitions. “Any content material that comes out of the U.Ok. slate I take care of indirectly,” she explains sooner than together with: “Or, extra particularly, someone who’s higher than me takes care of it and I cheer within the background.”

It’s an announcement typical of Mensah, who all via our hour-long interview is always quick to supply credit score rating to the colleagues and creatives she works with every regionally and internationally along with being unabashedly enthusiastic regarding the content material materials. Earlier than I’ve even managed to hit “document” on our dialog, we’re chatting about “The Gents,” which has been renewed for a second season, and “Love Is Blind U.Ok.,” which is almost to launch as soon as we converse. After I inform her I’ve seen the first 4 episodes beneath embargo, Mensah grins conspiratorially: “It solely will get higher and higher.”

“I believe I’ve received the best job as a result of the U.Ok. is simply sensible,” she says. “You’re working with such an unbelievable base of expertise, so then the query is simply how do you present them with the area and the platform to do their finest work?”

Mensah was employed in 2019 from Sky, the place she’d labored on high-end distinctive productions akin to “Chernobyl” and “Gangs of London.” The streamer had already greenlit varied British reveals out of the U.S. – along with “The Crown,” “Prime Boy” and “Intercourse Training” – and Mensah was employed as the first U.Ok.-based commissioner. Her exercise was to create a mild “drum beat” of top-class U.Ok. content material materials to look at the benchmark that had already been set. “I’m not going to lie, it was scary coming off the again of such well-loved reveals,” she says. “They display the vary of selection however they’re additionally extremely nicely liked within the U.Ok. after which globally. So, yeah, that was a bit bit sweat inducing.”

5 years on, Mensah and her group can boast their very personal outsize hits, from the remake of “One Day” starring Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod, to teen fave “Heartstopper,” to Harlan Coben adaptation “Idiot Me As soon as,” which is Netflix U.Ok.’s most worthwhile current of the 12 months and considered one of many streamer’s most worthwhile of all time. Of Netflix’s 107 Emmy nominations this 12 months, 47 are U.Ok.-originated, along with nods for “Child Reindeer” and “The Gents” (Mensah is quick to clarify not all the U.Ok.-nominated initiatives acquired right here out of her group, akin to “The Crown,” which has garnered 19 noms).

Nonetheless, Netflix’s success throughout the U.Ok. is testament to its funding proper right here, amounting to larger than £6 billion alone beforehand 4 years, along with in soundstages and talents teaching along with development and manufacturing. And there are usually not any plans to decelerate. Whereas the U.Ok. TV panorama has contracted significantly over the earlier 18 months, with commissioning budgets at every PSBs and streamers slashed, after I ask Mensah if Netflix is slicing once more on commissioning she categorically replies “No.” “We take the enterprise critically,” she says. “So we do look to guarantee that we’re delivering worth for cash, however no otherwise than we’ve at all times achieved.” Particularly, the U.Ok. group are centered on rising the native factual leisure offering, from the present “Promoting Sundown”-inspired “Shopping for London” to “At Dwelling With the Furys,” a docuseries about boxer Tyson Fury and his wacky brood and, in spite of everything, “Love Is Blind U.Ok.” (“I’m so tickled by the socials on that,” Mensah says.)

Mensah has moreover managed to lure varied cinema heavyweights over to the streamer, along with Man Ritchie and Keira Knightley, every of whom have labored on their first ever serialized initiatives at Netflix, Ritchie with “The Gents” and Knightley with upcoming Joe Barton-penned thriller “Black Doves,” which is at current in post-production. (“It’s sensible,” Mensah says of the current, which hasn’t set a launch date however. “Like, correctly sensible.”) How did she persuade Ritchie and Knightley to decamp to the small show display? “I don’t suppose we’re having to persuade anyone,” she replies. “That concept of authorship within the mainstream is permitting daring voices to be themselves. And in reality, it’s not massively dissimilar to what I used to be doing at Sky.”

It was at Sky, as an illustration, the place Mensah labored with “Fringe of Tomorrow” writer Jez Butterworth on “Britannia,” which ran for 3 seasons. “Generally persons are fairly snobby about the place they suppose ‘nice’ lives,” she says of her ambition to make every customary and critically-acclaimed reveals. “Nice doesn’t reside on the fringes. It lives proper within the middle, as a result of our audiences are intelligent and they’re various.” And, Mensah is simply not shy about declaring, she’s had her share of losses too. “They don’t at all times come!” she says of attempting woo experience, revealing she had wished to adapt James Graham’s play “Pricey England” at Netflix. “I went and noticed it [at the National Theatre in London] within the first week and I actually tried, and he selected to go to the BBC. And that’s a superb factor and it’s in all probability utterly proper for the present, as a result of he is aware of the present higher than I do.”

“I simply liked it,” she says. “After which I’ve to have a small cry after which I’ll cheer for it and that’s the entire level.”

She’s not merely saying it. Mensah – who was as quickly as head of neutral drama on the BBC – radiates actual enthusiasm when talking about U.Ok. TV enterprise as a complete, collectively along with her rivals. Though she cringes on the phrase “veteran” (“I can’t bear it,” she jokes), over a decades-long career Mensah has labored at varied U.Ok. manufacturing companies along with Sky and the BBC.

“What issues most is that the U.Ok. [industry] is flourishing,” she says. “Within the U.Ok., I consider that media is massively necessary, so we’ve got to construct the infrastructure nicely and we’ve got to take it critically. I can get misty-eyed concerning the reveals, however I take the enterprise of it actually critically as a result of it’s supported me my entire life.”

The arrival of deep pocketed-U.S. streamers on the U.Ok. scene has been a finding out curve for everyone, nonetheless Mensah says “we don’t have to struggle, we simply must be constant” — by which I imagine she means being clear about Netflix’s operate throughout the ecosystem, whether or not or not it’s investing in teaching initiatives or doing bespoke affords for every enterprise (a typical misunderstanding about Netflix is that they always buy out all the rights on a price, which “simply isn’t true,” she says.) “Generally folks struggle with us a bit bit, as a result of I believe that typically folks can’t reconcile the concept that we’ve got a really U.Ok.-focused group within the U.Ok. and it’s truthful and it’s actual and it’s constant and we care concerning the business,” she says. That care is why Mensah isn’t hesitating about “correctly cheering” for lots of of her counterparts on the PSBs, whether or not or not it’s ITV’s head of drama Polly Hill (“She’s an previous mate”) or Channel 4’s head of drama Ollie Madden (“He killed it on the BAFTAs!”). She moreover credit score Lindsay Salt – who was a colleague at Netflix sooner than transferring to the BBC as director of drama in 2022 – for initially pitching “One Day” on account of she was such a fan of the e-book.

Part of the rationale Netflix has ruffled feathers is on account of it often punches above its weight in terms of the cultural dialog, no matter have decrease than 10% of viewing throughout the U.Ok. Even so, reveals akin to “Heartstopper,” “Idiot Me As soon as” and “Child Reindeer” have grow to be monster hits, dominating social media and newspaper headlines. “Is that as a result of we’re speaking to the viewers?” Mensah muses. “Is that as a result of we’re hyper-focused on having a dialog with our members? As a result of if we had been making actually boring reveals that no person watched, no person would write about us. The 2 issues are utterly linked.”

Sometimes, in spite of everything, that has its drawbacks, akin to throughout the case of “Child Reindeer.” Created by and starring former comedian Richard Gadd, the gathering grew to grow to be most likely essentially the most talked about reveals of the 12 months sooner than being hit with a $170 million defamation lawsuit from a lady who claims she impressed one amongst characters. With the courtroom case ongoing, Mensah is proscribed in how lots she is going to be capable of say nonetheless she maintains she is “intensely proud” of the current and “the connection it made with its viewers.” The current has earned 11 Emmy nominations, with Gadd throughout the working for best actor and writing.

Netflix strenuously denies the claims throughout the lawsuit. In a licensed declaration made closing month as part of the case, Mensah averred: “The collection contains no characters named after actual individuals, and stars employed actors. Netflix would have by no means launched the collection had it believed the collection can be understood as stating precise info about anybody.” Thankfully, the experience doesn’t appear to have frightened Netflix away from assortment based totally on precise events. “We’re doing various true tales and we’ve at all times been cautious,” Mensah says.

Earlier than the licensed drama, considered one of many causes “Child Reindeer” grew to grow to be so profitable was on account of it felt so modern. Over seven sharply-observed, 30-minute episodes Gadd tells his story of sexual abuse, career failure and stalking with unflinching honesty. Netflix is often criticized for kowtowing to its algorithm when deciding whether or not or to not price or re-commission reveals nonetheless plenty of its hits, along with “Child Reindeer” along with the present “Supacell,” a few group of Black superheroes in South London, don’t look like the type of reveals a computer would spit out. After I put that to Mensah, she replies: “I’d say that none of our reveals are what an algorithm [would come up with] … Why would you do 5 Black superheroes in South London? It’s within the specificity. It’s within the specificity of ‘Child Reindeer.’ It’s within the specificity of [upcoming Jeff Goldblum-starrer] ‘Kaos,’ despite the fact that ‘Kaos’ is bonkers huge and actually like nothing you’ve ever seen earlier than.”

Mensah moreover elements out that every one broadcasters check out the knowledge when greenlighting a enterprise. “I did at Sky, and I did on the BBC as nicely, since you can be very, very short-sighted to suppose that all the pieces,” she says, together with that most likely essentially the most worthwhile initiatives tend to return about on account of someone is obsessive about them, pointing as soon as extra to Lindsay Salt’s love for “One Day.” “So I believe it’s ardour first, however then ardour that’s knowledgeable.”

Mensah’s private passion for the job is, in spite of everything, unwavering. “I get excited by what we’re doing,” she says. “I believe the potential of actually talking and having a dialog, it’s what BBC does at its finest as nicely,” she continues. “That concept that you may converse to a nation, simply in several methods. However what’s superb is we will take that nationwide dialog to a worldwide platform.”

Quickfire Questions

Are you capable of inform us one thing regarding the upcoming seventh season of “Black Mirror”? Casting probably?

It’s wicked, you wouldn’t even take into account it. I’d after which really I’d be killed. Charlie’s a genius. As a results of he’s a genius people want to work with him. You obtained’t take into account who we’ve obtained on this assortment, and additionally you obtained’t take into account what he’s achieved, the various kinds of tales over once more.

Will there be a Season 8?

[Jokingly going into the third person] She appears to be intriguing and he or she says that they’ve irons throughout the fireplace.

Why did it take so prolonged to do a U.Ok. mannequin of “Love is Blind”?

I imagine, to be truthful, we’ve solely, really merely come collectively. If you take into account the timeline in terms of what U.Ok. non-fiction has been, we’re merely on a improvement path there. It merely takes time for these things to return by means of and can be found by means of properly.

Is the reunion episode going to be reside?

No, it obtained’t be reside. However it can probably be good!

Did remaking “One Day” actually really feel like a hazard?

Individuals focus on hazard in television on a daily foundation, and on one diploma, I imagine every current is a hazard. So then you definitely definately merely go, “OK, do you actually belief and consider within the folks and [production company] Drama Republic who had been on the coronary heart of that present?” They fought for the e-book. They appreciated the e-book. They put collectively most likely essentially the most excellent group. You’re merely trusting the parents to do what they do brilliantly. I keep in mind watching it and having to have a small cry, after which understanding that, whether or not or not it linked or not, it was beautiful. However then what’s excellent, and that’s what I indicate about our viewers, is you type of knew it might.

Are you planning on working as soon as extra with “The Crown” creator Peter Morgan?

[Back in the third person] She locations a quizzical look on, after which she raises her eyebrows. Truthfully, I don’t know if I’d love anybody else further, nonetheless really, yeah. We may be talking.

Is one thing happening with the Roald Dahl Story Firm?

Sure. Fairly thrilling points.

What totally different upcoming reveals are you excited abut?

“Adolescence” [Philip Barantini’s four-part drama series starring and co-created by Stephen Graham]. Every episode’s 50 minutes, roughly, and it’s actually one shot. And it’s jaw dropping.