A former standup comic and his spouse have obtained a £4.2m dividend from the TV manufacturing firm behind Mastermind, Derry Ladies and Have I Received Information for You.
Jimmy Mulville and his spouse, Karen, shared the payout from Hat Trick Holdings, the producer behind hits together with Father Ted, Set off Level and Outnumbered.
Hat Trick’s revenues fell to £48.4m in 2023, from £57.7m the 12 months earlier than, and the corporate remained within the crimson, as pre-tax losses narrowed to £377,590 from £397,587, in accordance with accounts filed at Firms Home.
The variety of collection produced, a key measure of its efficiency, fell from 12 in 2022 to seven in 2023.
Nonetheless, the corporate mentioned highlights of final 12 months had included delivering 4 reveals via HTM Tv – its three way partnership with the Line of Obligation creator Jed Mercurio – and organising Sturdy Watch Studios, a digital specialist, with two former executives of the web writer LADbible.
Final month, a US model of Have I Received Information For You debuted on CNN, 34 years after it hit British screens.
Hat Trick mentioned that a number of of its subsidiaries – producing reveals similar to George Clarke’s Wonderful Areas and The Proms for the BBC – “proceed to carry out nicely collectively in a troublesome setting”.
Unbiased TV manufacturing firms have struggled as commissioning budgets have been minimize by British broadcasters, resulting in an trade mantra of “survive to 2025” as they try to experience out the powerful monetary situations.
Hat Trick was based in 1986 by Mulville – an aspiring standup turned TV govt – and his ex-wife, Denise O’Donoghue, who collectively created comedy reveals together with Drop the Lifeless Donkey and Room 101 earlier than her departure from the corporate in 2005.
Mulville has beforehand mentioned bringing again the corporate from the brink after a personal fairness deal struck in 2003 turned bitter. “I’d sit within the automotive park, quaking with concern,” he mentioned. “The enterprise was crippled with debt, not promoting any reveals.”
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In whole, the corporate paid out a dividend of £4.7m, together with £470,000 to its chair, Patrick McKenna, up from £2.7m distributed final 12 months. Jimmy and Karen Mulville obtained £4.2m of final 12 months’s dividend, up from £2.4m in 2022.
“Our objective stays easy: to make extremely profitable programmes for revenue,” wrote Paul Cohen, the group business director, within the accounts. He mentioned Hat Trick, which has workplaces in London and Belfast, additionally makes investments in “early-stage content material creation firms”.
Final 12 months, Mulville was ordered to pay a £1,000 superb after a magistrates courtroom heard that he swore and made impolite gestures at a bike owner who had filmed him utilizing his telephone whereas driving his Aston Martin in London.
