DLT Entertainment Expands Comedy Offering With New Podcast Division
When No One’s Watching featuring Matt Richardson & Matt Willis and National Treasures with Laura Lexx & Will Duggan
London: 13th May 2020: Award-winning production and distribution company DLT Entertainment today launches its new podcast division alongside two new comedy podcast series’, When No One’s Watching and National Treasures with Laura Lexx & Will Duggan. Heading up the new arm of the business is comedy writing duo, Ben Hillyar and David Mayes (Your Face or Mine, CITV’s Scrambled!), who will also produce both series which will be launching today via leading podcast platform, Acast.
Comprising of 10 weekly episodes and available to download now, When No One’s Watching is hosted by comedian and presenter Matt Richardson (The Xtra Factor, Virgin Radio, Celebrity Haunted Mansion) and Busted band member Matt Willis, who interview celebrities and comedians and get them to confess the things they get up to when no one’s watching. It's then up to the Matts to decide whether their sins are a redeemable GOOD bad, or an embarrassing BAD bad. Guests for series one includes Tom Fletcher, Emma Willis, Keith Lemon, Helen Bauer, Maisie Adam, Lauren Pattison, Kerry Howard and Derry Girls stars Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Louisa Harland
You’ll also be able to listen and download National Treasures with Laura Lexx & Will Duggan from today. Pre-recorded before social distancing measures were in place, you can and tag along with the comedians from home during their days out at some of nation's finest attractions. From castles, stately homes and ruins, to art galleries and museums, they journey through the country’s culture sites including Warwick Castle, Beeston Castle, Devil’s Dyke, Blenheim Palace, The Whitworth Art Gallery and Kew Botanical Gardens. Listen as they stumble through muddy fields, hallowed halls and half-remembered historical facts. It’s like an audio tour… only narrated by two idiots!
Reporting to DLT Creative Director Darren Smith are comedy writers Hillyar and Mayes who were recently hired by DLT Entertainment to develop and produce comedy content in podcast format as a testing ground for ideas and talent that have the potential to be adapted for other mediums. It has since become an organic area of growth within the business and in addition to working with the existing talent base within the agency, the team boasts several projects and partnerships in the pipeline with a wide range of talent from across the industry.
Having invested in the newly formed Blue Book Artist Management (Matt Richardson, Micky Flanagan, Zoe Lyons) and Andrew Roach Talent (Rob Deering, Lost Voice Guy, Laura Lexx) last year, DLT’s collaborative approach enabled it to maximise opportunities to work with its extensive and impressive roster of comedians, actors and writers, fostering the perfect creative environment for new ideas to thrive.
Matt Richardson commented “I’m so chuffed I’ve finally got an outlet to get celebrities and comedians to admit the things they secretly enjoy out loud. Those stories are always far more interesting than the things they say in every other interview. What’s better, is I get to do it with Matt Willis - a man I adore and love hanging out with. But more importantly - a man whose music I used to secretly enjoy and wouldn’t even admit to in a podcast about confessions and guilty pleasures”.
Laura Lexx, whose viral Twitter posts imagining life married to Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has recently resulted in a book deal, said; "The thing I've liked most about embarking on National Treasures so far is finding someone like Will to be really enthusiastic about stuff that's usually perceived as really uncool. To fully embrace middle age to the point where you're doing a podcast about nice days out, gift shops AND you're allowed to swear? This is winning.”
DLT Entertainment CEO Donald Taffner Jr. added; “It’s wonderful to be able to launch this new part of the business and welcome Ben and David on board as part of the team. During a time of increased uncertainty, we’re all in need of some light relief and I have no doubt that Guilty Pleasures and National Treasures will not only come back for a second series, but will be the first of many projects that do just that. Matt Richardson and Laura Lexx are up and coming talent that we’re proud to represent already and it’s great to see our strategy over the last few years start to pay off for our clients and DLT.”
DLT’s award-winning sitcom, My Family, is currently airing series one on BBC One at 8pm on Friday evenings. A rating smash hit, the full 11 series of the classic comedy is also available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
DLT also continues its role as owner and manager of the Shaftsbury Theatre, where multi award winning & Juliet will be returning later this year once social distancing measures allow.
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Further information:
Natasha Roberts, on behalf of DLT Entertainment: natasha.roberts@premiercomms.com | +44 200 7292 5094
Charlie Wainwright, on behalf of DLT: charlie.wainwright@premiercomms.com | +44 020 7292 7372
NOTES TO EDITORS
About DLT Entertainment:
With headquarters in London and New York, DLT Entertainment Ltd. is engaged in every aspect of television distribution and production around the world, as well as stage production in the US and in the UK where it owns London’s Shaftesbury Theatre.
Founded in 1963 as a distribution company by Don Taffner Sr., the company added television production to its portfolio in 1977. It has enjoyed terrific success in its fifty-six year history with legendary hits on both sides of the Atlantic including the multiple award-winning and BBC Trust praised sitcom My Family, As Time Goes By, Three’s Company, Too Close For Comfort and Meet My Folks. In addition, DLT has built a reputation as a leading distribution company with classics such as The Benny Hill Show, The World at War, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood, The Russ Abbot Show, Michel LeGrand and Friends, and Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit.
In 2018 DLT expanded its own production activities in the United Kingdom through the acquisition of Vera Productions whose past productions include Getting On, Million Pound Jewellers, Bremner, Bird, and Fortune, and numerous Dispatches such as President Trump’s Dirty Secrets and Politicians for Hire: Cashing in on Brexit.
DLT is also a significant player in the artist management business with key investments in The Soho Agency, Milburn Browning Associates, Blue Book Artist Management, and The Galton Agency.
The Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where & Juliet will continue its West End run once social distancing measures are eased, is owned by DLT.