Portman Film & Television Distribute Original Comedy

Portman Film & Television, part of the Digital Rights Group (DRG) has announced a sales agency agreement with Allan McKeown Presents for two brand new comedies.
'State of the Union' (5 x 30') Tracey Ullman's new comedy show, features a satirical look at a day in the life of America – from the country's celebrity obsessed, 24-hour news culture to original impersonations, and parodies.
Ullman has created a line-up of 30 original characters to reflect a cross-section of American society. State of the Union is Tracey's first series since the multi Emmy award-winning series Tracey Takes On which sold successfully around the world and ran on HBO in the US for seven years.
State of the Union premieres on the Showtime pay cable network in the US March 30 2008.
'Mumbai Calling' created by Allan McKeown and written by a team of writers in the UK will air on the UK's ITV1 at prime time in the autumn, starring Sanjeev Bhaskar (The Kumars at No. 42), Nitin Ganatra (Bride and Prejudice), Daisy Beaumont (Star Stories) and Namit Das.
The Teknobable call center in Mumbai is the setting for the series. Shot entirely on location in India the show has enormous production values and a large cast of Indian actors.
"We were able to work to a scale that would have been impossible in the UK," McKeown said, "We didn't forget that the most important element is the script and 12 writers contributed to the final scripts. We think the shows are funny, very funny."
The series is a return to UK TV for Allan McKeown after ten years working with HBO (Tracey Takes On, Trailer Tales, Live & Exposed) in the US and producing musicals in London (Jerry Springer the Opera - winner of Olivier Award for Best Musical 2005) and on Broadway (Lennon).
He is best know for Executive producing UK TV comedy series such as Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Birds of a Feather, Girls on Top and Lovejoy as well as building the SelecTV Plc company which he sold to Pearson (now Bertelsmann) in 1996.
(DS/JM)