DCD Rights Sells Australian Dramas ‘My Life Is Murder’ To UKTV’s Alibi & ‘The Hunting’ To Channel 5
DCD Rights has secured UK deals for two new Australian dramas. The international distributor has licensed crime drama My Life Is Murder to UKTV's Alibi channel and four-part drama The Hunting to Channel 5. The deal for My Life Is Murder was negotiated by UKTV's Acquisitions Manager Charlie Charalambous, while Channel 5's Acquisitions Director Anna-Belen Dunlop secured The Hunting for the broadcaster's prime-time schedule. Both series will premiere later this year. 
Ahead of the show's premiere on BBC Two tonight, DRG has lined up a slew of international sales for Remarkable Places To Eat. The international distributor has sold the six episode series to SBS in Australia, DR TV in Denmark, VTM in Belgium, RTL in Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and P & P Permissions and Rights covering Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. 
Tom Hollander (Baptiste, The Night Manager) and Saskia Reeves (Luther, Shetland), have been tapped to star in Us, BBC One's four-part drama that is based on David Nicholls' novel of the same name. Hollander will play Douglas Petersen, while Reeves has been cast as Connie. Us tells the story of Douglas Petersen, who is blindsided when his wife Connie tells him that she’s not sure she wants to be married to him anymore. Agreeing to still go on their planned family grand tour of Europe, Douglas vows to win back the love of his wife and repair his troubled relationship with their son Albie. 
Independent production company Element Pictures has hired Channel 4's Jonny Richards to serve as their Head of TV Development. In the newly created role, Richards will will oversee Element Pictures’ continued push into TV drama, expanding its development slate for the UK, US and international market. He will be based at the indie's London office and will report to Element's Head of Television Anna Ferguson. 
The BBC has found their Charles Sobhraj. Tahar Rahim, who recently starred as FBI Special Agent Ali Soufan in Hulu's The Looming Tower, has signed on to play Sobhraj in the BBC One's eight episode limited series The Serpent. Netflix has also boarded as co-producer and will serves as the show's broadcaster outside of the UK. 
International distributor DRG has struck a volume deal with Viacom's Spike channel in the Netherlands. The deal will see some 196 hours of programming from British producers air on the channel in the coming months. The deal gives Spike rights to six seasons of Inside The Ambulance, forty-five hours of Helicopter ER, twenty hours of Trauma Rescue Squad, the most recent two seasons of The Dog Rescuers, and four seasons of The Yorkshire Vet. 
Channel 4 has ordered Cooking Up A Fortune, a twenty episode cookery competition series that will allow amateur cooks get a once-in-a-lifetime chance to launch their own food brand to the British public. The series, which is being fronted by Dominic Cools-Lartigue, follows these amateur foodies who dream of escaping the rat race and cooking for a living, create and sell their dishes to hundreds of real diners in a purpose-built food arena. Each week the winning kitchen gets to launch their idea for a food business to paying customers, in one of Europe’s busiest food markets. The twenty episode stripped series is being produced by Frieda.TV. 
BBC Two has ordered Lose Weight & Get Fit, a six episode weight loss series fronted by chef Tom Kerridge. This marks Kerridge's third series for BBC Two after Lose Weight For Good and Fresh Start. Lose Weight & Get Fit With Tom Kerridge is set to premiere in early 2020.