ABOUT

With the backing of Great Point Media, Emily and Tom Dalton launched Factual Fiction in May 2020. Based on the edge of the Dales in North Yorkshire, Factual Fiction is the UK’s first off-grid production company, with sustainability and diversity at its heart. It combines Emily’s experience as Managing Director of Banijay-owned Darlow Smithson, with Tom’s work as a commercials director and writer/producer of the hugely successful ‘Agatha’ series. Tom & Emily are joined by co-founders Patrick Irwin (‘The Fall’, ‘Bang’ and ‘Miss Scarlet and the Duke’) and award-winning writer/director, Chamoun Issa.

At Darlow Smithson, Emily produced a range of premium factual and scripted shows for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 plus global and SVOD platforms. She originated hits like BAFTA-winning ‘Richard III: The King in the Car Park’, and C4’s highest rating drama series of the time ‘The Mill’. Emily has a passion for stories that reflect the zeitgeist, whether recent history like ‘Torvill & Dean’ and ‘The Queen Unseen’, or the forgotten past , like ‘24Hrs in the Past’ and ‘Made in Great Britain’.

After graduating from the NFTS, Tom spent twelve years directing and producing TV commercials and independent film. He wrote and directed the feature film ‘The Pharmacist’, before going on to write and produce ‘Agatha and the Truth of Murder’, C5’s first original feature-length film and their highest rating drama of 2018. Picked up in the UK and US by Netflix, ‘Truth of Murder’ became a worldwide sales success, leading to two sequels, ‘Agatha and the Curse of Ishtar’ and ‘Agatha and the Midnight Murders’.

Factual Fiction have just delivered their three-part Amazon Original, ‘The Greatest Show Never Made’, with their six-part returning drama series ‘The Puzzle Lady’ beginning production in Northern Ireland in May. They are developing scripted and unscripted projects with ZDFS, Fremantle, PBS Masterpiece, Amazon, Warner Bros, BBC, Channel 4 & Channel 5.