Wuthering Heights Gains New Territories

ITV Global Entertainment has announced further international TV distribution sales of ITV's epic drama master-piece Wuthering Heights, including ABC (Australia), WGBH (USA), W Network (Canada), TVNZ (New Zealand), VRT (Belgium), TV2 (Denmark), KRO (Holland), TV4 (Sweden), CYBC (Cyprus), Futura (Brazil), Mio tv (Singapore) and PTS (Taiwan).
The news follows the UK television premiere of the acclaimed costume-drama during the August bank holiday weekend. Wuthering Heights was UK television's highest rating show on August 30 during the 9pm slot. Part two continued to perform for ITV1, peaking with more than 4.4 million viewers on August 31.
Across both episodes, the drama averaged a 19% share of all ABC1 adults and won a share of 23% of all ABC1 female viewers.
Tobi de Graaff, Director of TV Distribution at ITV, said: "Wuthering Heights is a superb piece of high-quality drama. The lavish costumes, epic landscapes and gripping characters brilliantly bring this compelling portrayal of one of literature's most famous love stories to life in spectacular style.
"The sale's news sits proudly alongside our first Mammoth Screen drama Lost in Austen, which is watched in more than 120 countries worldwide."
Filmed on location in Yorkshire, England, Wuthering Heights is the lavish adaptation of Emily Bronte's haunting and passionate novel, starring Tom Hardy (Stuart: A Life Backwards) as the dark and brooding Heathcliff, alongside Charlotte Riley (The Tale) as Cathy, together with acclaimed actress Sarah Lancashire (Oliver Twist) as Nellie Dean and Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually) as Edgar, Cathy's forlorn husband.
Wuthering Heights is produced by Mammoth Screen, the UK independent studio backed by ITV Global Entertainment and WGBH Boston and supported by the Screen Yorkshire production fund.
ITV DVD, the UK label from ITV Global Entertainment, will launch Wuthering Heights on Blu-ray and DVD on September 7, 2009.
(KMcA/BMcC)