Jago Lee and John Fothergill launch TellTale, a premium factual production company | Antica Productions to lead minority investment in the new company
London, UK – November 03, 2021 – Producer Jago Lee and business partner John Fothergill have announced the launch of their new transatlantic production company Telltale, which will specialize in premium factual across audio, TV, and film.
With shows all sharing guiding principles of originality, pleasure, and purpose, Telltale’s launch slate is focused on ‘thrilling factual’ in the key genres of crime, history, and adventure.
Telltale is already working with a number of broadcasters, commissioners, and brands on a range of projects, and has struck an exclusive first look agreement with Antica Productions – one of North America’s most successful TV and podcasting indies (The Revisionaries with Michelle Romanow, Madness of Two) – as part of an equity investment by the Toronto HQ’d studio.
With Antica Productions, Telltale have access to the Canadian and US markets where they are co-developing a slate. The new partnership with Antica has grown out of a previous working relationship, which saw Lee partner with the company to produce several podcast series including art crime series Art Bust (presented by British art critic Ben Lewis) for USG Audio, the podcast division of Universal Studio Group, which looks at twisted crime stories from the art world.
The company’s development strategy is heavily informed by the dramatic expansion of longform narrative podcast in recent years, and the trend of such series converting into boxset TV. Telltale is adopting an ‘audio-first’ approach, born partly out of Lee’s involvement with a number of podcast projects both in the UK and US over the last year.
The move marks a new chapter in Lee and Fothergill’s careers. Lee, a seasoned producer and creative director through roles at Tiger Aspect, Antenna Pictures, and Nerd TV which he co-founded with Charlie Parsons and John Farrar, with a diversity of credits including How To Rob a Bank (Vice), Life’s Too Short (HBO/BBC), Inside the Gangsters Code (Discovery) and Orangutan Jungle School (Channel 4/ Love Nature) amongst many others, will combine his creative expertise with Fothergill’s business background, which includes more than a decade at Goldman Sachs launching multiple new ventures for the bank. The duo will build on well-developed pre-launch partnership agreements and harness their powerful network of collaborators, including former Red Arrow President & Co-CEO James Baker, who chairs their board.
Jago Lee said: “We love telling complex, characterful, original stories and we know these are treasured by audiences. They’re also, of course, the most challenging series to develop straight into the TV market. Telltale will take a platform agnostic approach – producing the thrilling stories we love in audio first, then evolving them into the TV and film worlds.”
John Fothergill said: “Telltale harnesses the power of the growing and exciting audio market, which has become a rich hunting ground for new IP. We are positioning ourselves at the forefront of that market, specifically to develop a clear storytelling path from audio to screen. We are thrilled that we have partnered with Antica Productions on our North American slate and look forward to sharing these rich stories with audiences soon.”
Stuart Coxe, President, Antica Productions said: “In Jago and John, we found independent producers of like-minded content, business goals and storytelling perspectives. With Antica’s Telltale investment, we look forward to growing our collective footprint and providing our partners with an even wider breadth of projects across film, tv, and audio.”
TellTale’s launch has been covered widely in US and European media. More can be found here:
Real Screen: Jago Lee and John Fothergill launch factual prodco TellTale
PodNews: Jago Lee and John Fothergill launch TellTale, a premium factual production company
Broadcast: Jago Lee sets up podcast shop
Yahoo: TellTale strikes exclusive first look agreement with Canada’s Antica Productions
VideoAge: Jago lee and John Fothergill Launch TellTale
Television Business International: Jago Lee & Antica Prods link for new ‘audio first’ factual prodco
Rapid TV News: Factual Production Company TellTale Opens New Chapter
ATV Today: Production Company TellTale Launches for ‘Premium Factual’ content
WorldScreen: Jago Lee and John Fothergill Launch TellTale Production Company
Further information:
Charlie Wainwright
charlie.wainwright@premiercomms.com
Lily Hawkins
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Telltale Industries
Telltale Industries a transatlantic independent production company based in London and Brighton. Set up by Jago Lee and John Fothergill, Telltale specializes in compelling series in audio and in TV and film. Telltale work with the best-in-class writers, directors, producers, and performers to bring outstanding stories to the world’s most demanding audiences. Working across TV and audio, with networks and brands, their guiding principles are originality, pleasure, and purpose.
Across more than 20 years in the TV and audio industries Lee and Fothergill’s work has spanned feature documentary, true crime, factual entertainment and scripted comedy.
Website: www.telltaleindustries.com
Twitter: @Telltale_studio
About Jago Lee
Jago has worked as an award-winning TV producer and executive producer both in the UK and US. After leading the ideas development process for major production companies including Tiger Aspect, Optomen and Diverse, he co-founded London and New York based Nerd TV in 2010 and is now as comfortable in the north American media ecosystem as he is in the UK and Europe. Following Nerd’s acquisition by German broadcaster Prosieben in 2016, Jago acted as Creative Director for Toronto HQ’d Blue Ant – an international channel operator, distributor, and production studio, launching and running their UK arm Antenna Pictures.
About John Fothergill
John Fothergill is an itinerant entrepreneur, with interests and experience across multiple industries. He has oscillated between small creative enterprises and giant commercial ones, including a stint in travel writing, a decade at Goldman Sachs, a foray into hospitality, and enterprises in art, media and beyond, picking up a uniquely disparate collection of industry awards along the way. With Telltale, he is working to combine the commercial rigour of his more recent ventures with the journalism and story-telling that was his first love and which, in one form or another, has found its way into almost everything he has done since.
About Antica Productions
Antica Productions produces non-fiction podcasts, films and series which inform and inspire audiences around the world. Led by a global team of award-winning creators and journalists, Antica’s mission is to amplify the diverse voices of people through empathetic storytelling.
The podcast division has production deals with USG Audio in the United States and Audible. Antica’s documentaries have received world-wide critical attention via CBC and Hot Docs International Festival among others.
Antica Productions, founded by Stuart Coxe in 2008, is headquartered in Toronto with full-time producers based in New York and London.