The queen's gambit

Nishanth Bhargava on the state of Left Bank Pictures.

In the world of cinema, the name “Left Bank” brings to mind an image of the wild French New Wave—the Parisian filmmakers who worked south of the Seine were political, cerebral, and prized originality over commercial conformity. Left Bank Pictures, on the other hand, isn’t any of these things—for one, the U.K.-based production company is much more a television studio than a maker of films. Its output is also deeply British, made for mass markets, and bound by a tried and true in-house formula that governs both content and distribution. It’s a formula that’s changed dramatically since Left Bank’s founding, a shift reflective of the turns taken by television since the streaming revolution began.  

Left Bank Pictures got their start in July of 2007 under the leadership of Andy Harries, formerly an executive at what is now ITV Studios. Their first major investment came from BBC Worldwide, which put £1 million into the fledgling media company shortly after its founding. The move attracted immediate controversy for potential conflicts of interest for the publicly-funded broadcaster, with The Guardian calling it “unprecedented in the UK.” On Left Bank’s end, the arrangement was built not only on commercial interest, but on Harries’ desire to keep the business in the UK. A sense of national identity sits at the core of Left Bank’s ethos, with Harries explaining that “I’ve always wanted to make…shows that will be broadcasted around the world, but with a specificity that comes from the UK. That doesn’t mean to say they have to be set in the UK, but they have a sense of the UK.”  

Further reading: The state of NEON 

Left Bank’s nationalism, of course, has its limits, which became apparent when the company accepted an offer from the U.S.-based Sony Pictures to take a majority stake in the studio in 2012. Where it remains palpable, however, is in the content that the studio produces, like the Scottish historical drama Outlander and the blockbuster royal docu-drama The Crown.

Even early hits like police dramas DCI Banks and Wallander evoke a certain British feel with their grayscale color palettes and gruff, often miserable protagonists, despite the latter being set in Sweden. Beyond their tone and usual setting, Left Bank’s shows are also similar in their ability to blend mass appeal with a certain air of sophistication—easy-to-watch TV that’s still highbrow enough to sate audiences looking for something a cut above 9-1-1: Lone Star. 

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