Sky’s the limit as new TV drama Riviera pulls in a million viewers
SKY Atlantic’s glamorous new Britishmade TV drama Riviera has become the highest-rating premiere on the channel this year, beating hit US programmes.
Set on the Cote d’Azur and filmed on location in the south of France, the series is actually made by Marble Archbased Archery Pictures.
The 10-part drama stars Hollywood actress Julia Stiles as the widow of a recently-deceased billionaire art collector, who discovers his fortune was built on crime and murder.
Featuring superyachts and luxury hotels, the first episode premiered last Thursday and got more than a million viewers — higher than Showtime series Billions, featuring Damian Lewis, and HBO’s Big Little Lies with Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.
It comes after a run of international hit British shows such as Downton Abbey, Sherlock and The Crown and represents a boom-time for TV drama. The arrival of big-spending streaming services like Netflix and Amazon has upped the ante for traditional broadcasters. Netflix spent a record £100 million on The Crown, which focuses on the early years of the Queen’s reign. The BBC has responded by investing in dra- mas like Poldark, Versailles and War and Peace, ITV debuted Victoria, and Sky is backing more UK-made dramas such as Guerrilla starring Idris Elba.
Figures released today show Riviera has been downloaded more than 4.6 million times in a week, setting a new record for box sets on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV. More than 150,000 people binge-watched all 10 episodes in the first weekend. It is a huge success for Archery Pictures, founded in 2014 by Kris Thykier, husband of TV presenter Claudia Winkleman.
Sky Atlantic expects another hit next month when Game of Thrones returns for its seventh season.