The long way round: Corona Television heads on moving to the small screen
Corona Television’s Richard Johns and Rupert Jermyn tell DQ how a lengthy drive laid the foundations for their move from cinema to the small screen – and insist they haven’t looked in the rear-view mirror since. Long car journeys are often noted as the cause of arguments, or they can be filled by tedious periods of bored silence as unremarkable countryside flashes past the windows. But in the case of film producers Richard Johns and Rupert Jermyn (pictured left to right above), a four-and-a-half-hour trip across England was the moment the pair decided to set their sights on television. The subject of conversation was Wilbur Smith’s adventure novel Birds of Prey, and by the time the duo arrived in London from a Newcastle film set, Corona Television was born. Jermyn recalls: “We started talking about the Wilbur Smith books and by the time we reached London we realised you can’t make books like that into films. There’s too much plot, too much fun. We got in touch with Wilbur, and it turned out we were the first ones to say to him we should do TV, not film. “That’s probably what kick-started Corona Television. It was a light-bulb moment when we said we watch more television than film. It was a very organic car journey.” Birds of Prey, which is being adapted by JJ Connolly (Layer Cake), is one of a number of properties on Corona’s burgeoning television slate. The story, set in 1667, follows a host of characters on the … Continue reading The long way round: Corona Television heads on moving to the small screen
