Who are we?

A new production company developing drama projects for film and television.

Pampaset Productions has evolved from Talawa Theatre Company, the UK's most renowned Black theatre company. Pampaset Productions will utilize, maximise and broaden Talawa's core strength, its accessibility to writers from diverse cultural and social backgrounds. In so doing, it will unearth and encourage exciting new writing talent.

Pampaset Productions will build on this strength encouraging British writers from all ethnic backgrounds to develop scripts and screenplays for television and cinema.

What we offer

Pampaset Productions has two goals.

One is to reflect the growing diversity of British culture on primetime television by finding and developing scripts which are genuinely culturally diverse that challenge and entertain audiences.

The other is to establish an ongoing relationship with writers to continue the process of producing high quality television drama and single films which show today's Britain in a fresh and more truthful light.

Pampaset will seek out, develop and produce for the screen stories with commercial potential which respond to, and reflect, today's Britain.

Invitation to writers

Our writers are second generation Britons whose ancestry comes from across the globe, and who necessarily reinterpret 'Britishness.' We welcome ideas from writers of all ethnic backgrounds. Submissions should be in the form of treatments or scripts. Most television drama today is in the form of series and serials so submissions should take this into consideration. Single film ideas can be conceived either for television or the cinema. We will also look at ideas for innovative and accessible documentaries on a diverse Britain.

Who is the team?

Don Warrington is the executive director of Pampaset. He is one of the UK's best-loved and most frequently recognised actors. Best-known for playing Philip Smith in Rising Damp, he recently won acclaim for his performances in 'Elmina's Kitchen' and 'Statement of Regret' at the National Theatre. He was awarded an MBE in the 2008 Birthday Honours.

Patricia Cumper is the artistic director of Talawa. Her plays have been produced throughout the Caribbean, in Canada and the US. Her work for radio includes a RIMA winning drama series, adapting Rital Dove's 'Darker Face of the Earth', a fifteen part serialisation of 'Small Island' and an award winning ten part adaptation of 'The Color Purple' for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Peter Ansorge has been a producer of film and television drama at both the BBC and Channel 4 where he became Head of Drama. Among his award-winning productions and commissions are 'A Very British Coup', 'Traffik', Paula Milne's 'The Politician's Wife', Alan Bleasdale's 'GBH' and David Hare's 'Licking Hitler'. At the BBC he produced the UK's first black soap opera 'Empire Road' written by Guyanese-born Michael Abbensetts.

Tara Prem is an award-winning producer of film and television drama. At the BBC she was in charge of the 'Second City Firsts' series of new drama which first introduced the work of Alan Bleasdale, Willy Russell, Ron Hutchinson and Ian McEwan, among others, to television audiences. She produced Paul Greengrass's first feature film 'Resurrected' for Channel 4 as well as Jimmy McGovern's award-winning drama series 'Hearts And Minds.' Her own screenplay 'A Touch of Eastern Promise' was the first television drama to deal with the lives of an ordinary Asian family in the inner-city.

Christopher Rodriguez created the Literary Department at Talawa generating partnerships with Channel 4, BBC and London ITV. He began as a Chartered Accountant before turning dramatist. He has had eight plays staged around the UK.

This is the team who will select, develop and produce Pampaset's first slate of film and television drama.

Up and running

Channel 4's drama department have commissioned Pampaset to develop a drama series written by Abby Ajayi called 'Occassions'.