{"id":849577,"date":"2026-03-25T15:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/849577\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:28:22","slug":"disneys-angela-jain-reveals-duffy-doc-murder-on-lake-garda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/849577\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney+’s Angela Jain Reveals Duffy Doc & ‘Murder On Lake Garda’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE: <\/strong>In her first interview since becoming head of content at Disney+ EMEA, Angela Jain<\/a> has said the message to writers and producers is simple, the streamer is going to greenlight more originals from the region and will be backing that effort with extra funds for local fare.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA meticulous approach to judging what are the right projects for us will still remain, but we want to do more,\u201d Jain told Deadline. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think we can do more without spending more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs this interview lands, Jain will be walking off the stage at Series Mania<\/a>, where she will have delivered a similar message to the massed ranks of drama producers, executives and press at the confab in Lille, Northern France. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe streamer announced new shows at Series Mania including a Hulu<\/a> murder mystery out of Italy, a vampire comedy from Turkey and a Spanish doc series about abandoned children (more on those below). \u201cI\u2019m not going to sit here making false promises,\u201d she said during her Series Mania panel session, which was moderated by Deadline. \u201cYou can already see we are ramping up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWith many legacy broadcasters feeling the pinch and the impact of the latest wave of consolidation still unknown, it is a challenging time in the international drama biz, so talk of expanding the slate of local shows will be a tonic for Euro producers.<\/p>\n

\n\tFormer ITV Studios exec Jain was announced in the Disney+ role last June, succeeding Liam Keelan in an expanded role. The growth story appealed to her too. \u201cThe level of ambition is enormous,\u201d Jain says. \u201cI was attracted to the fact that Disney+ is in growth mode. It\u2019s very hard to find those opportunities in this business, and also the opportunity to work with European businesses to grow in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Poland\u2026 there\u2019s a clear message to the creative community that we want to do more with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe plan to further boost local commissioning will mean more drama, but in terms of local originals, Disney+ has skewed more in favor of scripted than unscripted in most of its European markets. \u201cPart of what I\u2019m going to do is rebalance that,\u201d says Jain, whose experience is mainly drawn from big unscripted beasts like Love Island.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m definitely going to be commissioning more unscripted; returning series hopefully, and reality, observational docs and factual entertainment. And the joy of doing unscripted is that you can hopefully, in success, commission in volume, and the shows can return quicker.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe is at pains to say this doesn\u2019t mean a reduction in the amount of drama, but more of a balancing out where needed. <\/p>\n

\n\tHere at Series Mania, Disney+ unveiled a handful of new shows. From Italy there is Murder on Lake Garda<\/a> (WT) based on Tom Hindle\u2019s eponymous Sunday Times bestseller. Per the synopsis: In the quiet of Lake Garda, a private island hosts the most exclusive wedding of the year between Leopoldo Vigevani, heir to one of the country\u2019s richest and most powerful families, and influencer Eva Bianchi. When a lifeless body is found on the beach, the island turns into a trap from which no one can escape. This one will be a Hulu original series for Disney+ produced by Fremantle label The Apartment.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the UK, Disney+ is making a documentary about \u201cMercy\u201d singer Duffy<\/a>. Rare TV and Stellify Media\u2019s doc will tell the story of how one of the most popular British singers disappeared for 10 years. Then, in 2020,\u00a0she published a harrowing post on social media. She revealed that a decade earlier, she had been drugged, before being kidnapped and taken to another country, where she was violently and sexually abused over a period of weeks. It had a devastating ripple effect across her entire life.<\/p>\n

\n\tOut of Spain, there is Abandoned. The doc series delves into a real-life story of three children aged two, four and six who were found abandoned at a city train station. They were unable to explain who they were, who their parents were, or why they were there, but 40 years later they set out to uncover the truth. Luminol Media is producing.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Strange Story of Gustav Maier, meanwhile, is a different kind of Turkish drama. The country is renowned for its long-running soapy dramas, but this one is billed as \u201ca hilarious love story between a 350-year-old virgin vampire and a perfectly normal woman.\u201d We\u2019ve got the first pic from the eight-episode show, which is produced by MGX. Umut Aral directs from Giray Alt\u0131nok\u2019s script.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn terms of the commitment to doing a greater number of local shows, the idea is subscribers will be seeing more from their home countries, and more often. \u201cWhat we want, which is why we\u2019re doing more, is greater frequency of our local originals, so they\u2019re not so spread out. That\u2019s definitely part of the Disney+ growth strategy,\u201d Jain says.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"First-look<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFirst-look picture of The Strange Story of Gustav Maier<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDisney+<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney+ has had its share of locally originated successes. Bref 2 has been big in France, Rivals has created a lot of buzz in the UK, France-originated show The Lost Station Girls did really well in Latin America, and soapy Turkish dramas have travelled. But Disney+ is yet to have a local original that goes on to be a global smash hit. Is finding those shows part of Jain\u2019s mission?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat will define a show\u2019s success is how well it performs in the local market; talkability, capture, cultural impact, those kinds of measures of success.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s no surprise to hear that in second or third series, and possibly more so for English-language shows, there will be an expectation that if something is really good, we want lots of people to see it, so we would like it to travel. But first and foremost, local originals need to work in the market in which they were commissioned. That\u2019s our primary objective.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney+ local originals are vying for attention with some of the biggest series and films on the planet. Jain\u2019s task is to create a pipeline of shows that can live in that company. \u201dWe\u2019ve got Marvel, Pixar, Star Wars, FX\u2026 it\u2019s an incredible universe that we\u2019re in, but then it also that sets a really high quality bar, which we\u2019re not frightened to get close to,\u201d she says. \u201cIt also gives us very specific space that we can occupy, where local originals do something that complements our global slate. It\u2019s very important for us to find that space.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is where we\u2019re at now. This is our opportunity to really find local, original content that complements that premium, global slate. The quality threshold remains super high, and that\u2019s great company for us to keep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Disney exec says she is working closely with her U.S. counterparts but has autonomy on programming decisions. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of people whose opinions really matter, but ultimately, the greenlight authority sits with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe stressed that \u201csometimes an element of surprise is required\u201d when taking pitches and therefore does not want to be overly prescriptive with her \u201cshopping list\u201d for producers. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a science, it\u2019s art meets science,\u201d added Jain. \u201cThere\u2019s a bit of guesswork but we rely on our creative collaborators to help us get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDisney+ has been working with legacy broadcasters, signing branding and content-sharing agreements with the UK\u2019s ITV, Germany\u2019s ZDF Studios and Spain\u2019s Atresmedia.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIf the relationship and partnership works for both of us, we\u2019re completely open to that,\u201d Jain says. \u201cWe can already point to places where we\u2019re trying out our partnership with free-to-air broadcasters to see what that will deliver for both of us. We\u2019re still at the beginning and are absolutely exploring more ways of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMax Goldbart contributed reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: In her first interview since becoming head of content at Disney+ EMEA, Angela Jain has said the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":849578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[147543,823,82794,77,30598,242554,48017,78521,16,15],"class_list":["post-849577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-angela-jain","tag-disney","tag-duffy","tag-entertainment","tag-hulu","tag-murder-on-lake-garda","tag-series-mania","tag-tv-markets","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116290526182151015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=849577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/849578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}