EXCLUSIVE: Cooper & Fry are heading to the U.S. after streamer BritBox snapped up the British crime drama. The show has performed well on Paramount-owned broadcast network 5 in the UK and now has a U.S. home. BritBox has snagged Season 1 of the show for U.S. and Canada, while Netflix has taken second window UK rights.
Adapted from Stephen Booth’s bestselling detective novels, Cooper & Fry follows unlikely detective duo Ben Cooper and Diane Fry, played by Robert James-Collier (Downton Abbey) and Mandip Gill (Doctor Who).
Set in and around England’s picturesque Peak District, the series follows Cooper, who is struggling to emerge from the shadow of his late father, while Fry is an outsider fleeing tragedies in her past. Together, they tackle grisly crimes in the remote countryside.
The series recently scored a Season 2 commission from 5, with filming currently underway ahead of a 2027 bow. Specifically, the upcoming season will cover Booth’s novels The Devil’s Edge, Fall Down Dead, One Last Breath and The Murder Road.
The show is produced by Mike Benson’s Clapperboard. The prodco is backed by Studio TF1, which sells the series internationally.
The BritBox and Netflix UK deals come amid a raft of sales for Cooper & Fry. Other buyers include Australian pubcaster ABC, Discovery in Italy, Disney in the Balkans and Virgin Media in Ireland. In Scandinavia and the Benelux it has been acquired by BBC First (Netherlands), VRT (Belgium), DR (Denmark), YLE (Finland) and SVT (Sweden). WOWOW has the show for Japan.
“Working with Clapperboard, a Studio TF1 company, reflects our ambition to build partnerships both within the Group and beyond to bring distinctive English-language stories for audiences around the world,” said Camille Dupeuble, EVP International TV and Digital Distribution at Studio TF1.
“Its strong crime procedural format, built around a compelling detective duo, gave it the recipe for a returning series from the very beginning and strong worldwide sales.”
