Latest Role For Firm’s Media And Entertainment Team

Law firm Irwin Mitchell’s fast-growing media and entertainment practice have been appointed by the team behind leading multi award winning TV production company, Saffron Cherry, to advise on the production of a new Milkshake! Channel 5 & S4C TV programme, The World According to Grandpa.

The new humorous children’s series, which is scheduled to air on Channel 5 on Saturday 28th November, is based on books by Chris Heath and was influenced by the tales of his own Grandad, Arturo Garcia. 

The series features 2D animation with each episode prompted by a question posed by one of the four grandchildren to the grandpa, who will be played in the Milkshake! Channel 5 programme by leading theatre and TV actor, Don Warrington MBE. Sally Lindsay, renowned actor, writer and presenter provides the voice of the other lead character, Halifax the rabbit, which has been produced by puppeteers Talk to the Hand Productions, and is operated by Julia Frost.

The show is designed to inspire children to laugh and learn through relatable intergenerational relationships and visually engaging animation and live action mix.

Manchester-based Grandpa Productions Limited has been commissioned to make 25 episodes. The shows will appear on Channel 5’s children’s programming block, Milkshake! A Welsh language version will also appear on S4C, the Welsh-language free-to-air television channel.

The Channel 5 version will be produced by newly established Grandpa Productions, and led by company director, Caroline Roberts-Cherry and Derek Drennan who runs Head of Production consultancy The Nest. The Welsh language version for S4C will be co-produced by Angharad Garlick and the team at Cardiff based production company, Boom Cymru alongside Grandpa Productions

The production has also been supported by the government funded Young Audiences Content Fund (YACF), which is managed by the BFI and supports the creation of distinct, high-quality content for children and young audiences. 

As the appointed production lawyers, Irwin Mitchell  advised on all production and production finance agreements including the negotiation and drafting of the broadcaster agreements with Channel 5 and S4C; and the production finance agreement with the British Film Institute’s (BFI) new Young Audiences Content Fund and the Distribution agreement with Beyond Distribution. 

The Irwin Mitchell team was led by Partner Laura Harper and included Senior Associate, Aurelia Butler Ball and solicitors Elizabeth Maloney, Grace McNulty-Brown and in Amelia Darbro. Senior associate Robert Farrell advised on the banking issues.

Laura Harper, who is the national Media & Entertainment sector lead at Irwin Mitchell, said: 

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“We’re delighted to be appointed by Grandpa Productions to handle all the legal aspects in connection to the production of The World According to Grandpa.

“This was a great project involving close collaboration between many stakeholders and supported by the collective strength of our Sport, Media and Entertainment team.

“It is a delightful children’s programme that the excellent team at Grandpa Productions can all be very proud of. The series highlights the wonderful relationship between grandparents and grand-children. It was a pleasure to work on such a joyful and diverse production with Grandpa, and each of the stakeholders, to help realise this superb programme.

“Manchester has an incredibly rich heritage of children’s television production and The World According to Grandpa is the latest addition to the high quality children’s programmes produced in the city.”
Laura Harper - Partner

Caroline Roberts-Cherry, founder of Saffron Cherry, and executive producer of The World According to Grandpa, said: “Laura and her team offered a seamless and comprehensive service which freed up the creative team to focus on fire-breathing hamsters and cats that mine for jam , and of course our wonderful cast. It was also important to us that Irwin Mitchell like us, are based in Manchester, and that they were able to pro-actively cover off every aspect of the Legals, which made us feel supported.”

Irwin Mitchell’s Sport, Media and Entertainment team supports businesses and professionals in the creative industries and digital sector and was shortlisted as a finalist in the UK law firm of the year category at the prestigious Music Week Awards 2020. Irwin Mitchell is also the official legal partner of England Rugby. Earlier this year Irwin Mitchell advised leading games development studio Firesprite on its publishing deal with Perp Games for its critically-acclaimed IP: The Persistence.

The team recently announced it had been appointed to advise Inner City Music on a new UK wide venture called ‘Passport: Back to Our Roots’ which will see major music acts, including Elbow, Everything Everything, Public Service Broadcasting and The Slow Readers Club, perform one-off intimate gigs designed to secure the survival of small grassroots venues across the UK.