Nicola Shindler

Nicola Shindler (born 8 October 1968) is a British television producer and executive, and founder of the independent television drama production company Quay Street Productions, having founded and run Red Production Company from 1998 to 2020. She has won eleven BAFTA TV Awards.

Early life and education Shindler was born in Rochdale, England, the daughter of school teacher Gay Shindler (née Kenton) and solicitor Geoffrey Shindler. She grew up in the Whitefield area of Greater Manchester.

Shindler attended Bury Grammar School from 1979 to 1987. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in history from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.

Career Shindler first started out working as a sales manager in the sales department at Royal Court Theatre, which she chose because it was the home of new writing. She eventually started working as a script reader there but realised after a couple of years that she was more interested in the process of writing and working with writers in television versus theatre.

Shindler then got a job at the BBC as a trainee script editor. Part of the responsibilities of that job in the early days was reading scripts that had been accumulating in the basement of the BBC for over 10 years. Shindler says that it was educational and she got a reputation as a hard worker from clearing this huge backlog.

Red has since produced dramas for BBC One, BBC Two, and ITV including Clocking Off (2000–03), Flesh and Blood (2002), Bob and Rose (2001) and The Second Coming (2003).

In addition to the ITV series, Scott & Bailey, Shindler produced the award-winning Happy Valley, which is set in the Calder Valley and environs and stars Sarah Lancashire. In December 2013, it was announced that Shindler had sold a majority stake Red Production Company to the French media company StudioCanal.

Other productions produced by Shindler at Red are 2016's The Five and 2017's Trust Me, alongside 2018's Come Home and Harlan Coben’s Safe, 2019's Years and Years from Russell T. Davies, and Traces, a second series of which is due in 2021, and Harlan Coben’s The Stranger (2020)

Further new dramas produced by executive produced by Shindler due in 2021 include Finding Alice, It’s a Sin, Ridley Road, No Return, Traces Series 2 and Stay Close.

In 2021, Shindler launched new scripted production company Quay Street Productions. Sited within ITV Studios, the label is based in Central Manchester and focuses on producing premium drama for the UK and international market.

Personal life Shindler lives and works in Manchester, England. Shindler is married to writer Matt Greenhalgh, they have two daughters and a son. 2013: BBC Radio 4, Woman's Hour – Power List 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom 2015: The Hollywood Reporter – 25 Most Powerful Women in Global TV 2016: Peabody Award for Happy Valley 2017: Women in Film and Television International – Women in Film and Television Award 2019: Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to broadcasting

Awards 1997: BAFTA TV Award, Best Single Drama for Hillsborough – with Katy Jones, Charles McDougall, Jimmy McGovern 1997: Munich Film Festival, VFF TV Movie Award, Best International Television Production for Hillsborough 2001: BAFTA TV Award, Best Drama Series for Clocking Off – with Ann Harrison-Baxter, Paul Abbott 2002: BAFTA TV Award, Best Drama Serial for Bob & Rose (nomination) – with Ann Harrison-Baxter, Russell T. Davies 2002: BAFTA TV Award, Best Drama Series for Clocking Off (nomination) – with Juliet Charlesworth, Paul Abbott 2003: BAFTA TV Award, Best Drama Series for Clocking Off (nomination) – with Paul Abbott, Juliet Charlesworth 2005: Royal Television Society, RTS Television Award, Best Drama Serial for Conviction (nomination) – with Marc Munden, Bill Gallagher, Ann Harrison-Baxter, David Richards 2008: BAFTA TV Award, Best Single Drama for The Mark of Cain – with Tony Marchant, Lynn Horsford, Marc Munden 2008: Broadcasting Press Guild Award, Best Single Drama for The Mark of Cain (nomination) – with Tony Marchant, Marc Munden, Lynn Horsford 2008: Monte-Carlo TV Festival, Golden Nymph for Best Television Film for The Mark of Cain – with Marc Munden, Lynn Horsford, Tony Marchant 2010: BAFTA TV Award, Best Drama Serial for Unforgiven (nomination) – with Sally Wainwright, Karen Lewis, David Evans 2013: BAFTA TV Award, Best Mini-Series for Last Tango in Halifax – with Sally Wainwright, Euros Lyn, Karen Lewis 2015: BAFTA TV Award, Best Mini-Series for Prey (nomination) – with Nick Murphy, Tom Sherry, Chris Lunt 2017: BAFTA TV Award, Best Drama Series for Happy Valley – with Sally Wainwright. Juliet Charlesworth, Neasa Hardiman 2017: BAFTA Television Craft Award, Best Drama Series for Happy Valley (nomination) – with Sally Wainwright, Juliet Charlesworth, Neasa Hardiman 2017: Banff Rockie Award, Best Mini-Series for Happy Valley (nomination) – with Sally Wainwright, Neasa Hardiman, Juliet Charlesworth 2017: Royal Television Society, RTS Television Award, Best Single Drama for The Mark of Cain (nominated) – with Marc Munden, Lynn Horsford, Tony Marchant 2018: Royal Television Society, RTS Northern Ireland Award, Best Drama for Come Home 2019: Creative Diversity Network Award, Commissioning for Butterfly 2019: Royal Television Society, RTS North West Award, Best Single Drama or Drama Series for Years and Years 2019: BAFTA TV Award, Presented with a Special Award recognising her outstanding contribution to the television industry 2020: Broadcast Award, International Programme Sales for Years and Years

Filmography

1993: Cracker (TV series) – script editor (7 episodes) 1995: Degrees of Error (TV series) – script editor 1996: Our Friends in the North (TV mini-series) – assistant producer (9 episodes) 1996: Prime Suspect 5: Errors of Judgement (TV mini-series) – assistant producer (2 episodes) 1996: Hillsborough (TV movie) – producer 1999: Heart – producer 1999: Love in the 21st Century (TV series) – creator, executive producer (6 episodes) 1999–2000: Queer as Folk (TV series) – producer (10 episodes); Executive Producer (10 episodes) 2001: Now You See Her (TV movie) – executive producer 2001: Bob & Rose (TV series) – executive producer (6 episodes) 2001–2002: Linda Green (TV series) – producer (6 episodes); Executive Producer (10 episodes) 2000–2002: Clocking Off (TV series) – executive producer (21 episodes) 2002: Sparkhouse (TV mini-series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2002: Flesh and Blood (TV movie) – executive producer 2003: Burn It (TV series) – executive producer 2003: The Second Coming (TV mini-series) – executive producer (2 episodes) 2003: Indian Dream (TV movie) – executive producer 2004: Conviction (TV series) – executive producer (4 episodes) 2004: Mine All Mine (TV series) – executive producer (5 episodes) 2005: Dead Man Weds (TV series) – executive producer 2005: Big Dippers (TV movie) – executive producer 2005: Casanova (TV mini-series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2005: Jane Hall (TV series) – executive producer 2006: Magnolia (TV movie) – executive producer 2006–2007: New Street Law (TV series) – executive producer (12 episodes) 2007: The Mark of Cain – executive producer 2009: Unforgiven (TV mini-series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2010: Acid Burn (short) – executive producer 2010: A Passionate Woman (TV series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2010: Worried About the Boy (TV movie) – executive producer 2010: Single Father (TV mini-series) – executive producer (4 episodes) 2011: Exile (TV mini-series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2011–2012: Bedlam (TV series) – executive producer (12 episodes) 2011–2016: Scott & Bailey (TV series) – executive producer (30 episodes) 2012: Life Stories (TV mini-series) – executive producer (4 episodes) 2012: Love Life (TV series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2012: The Syndicate (TV series) – executive producer (5 episodes) 2012: Hit & Miss (TV mini-series) – executive producer (6 episodes) 2012: Blackout (TV mini-series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2012: Blood – producer 2012–2016: Last Tango in Halifax (TV series) – executive producer (20 episodes) 2013: Heading Out (TV series)– producer 2013: The Last Witch (TV movie) – executive producer 2014: The Driver (TV mini-series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2014–2015: Prey (TV mini-series) – executive producer (2 episodes) 2014–2016: Happy Valley (TV series) – executive producer (12 episodes) 2015: Tofu (TV series documentary short) – executive producer (8 episodes) 2015: Cucumber (TV series) – executive producer (8 episodes) 2015: Banana (TV series) – executive producer (8 episodes) 2015: Danny and the Human Zoo (TV movie) – executive producer 2016: The Five (TV series) – executive producer (10 episodes) 2016: Paranoid (TV mini-series) – associate producer (1 episode); Executive Producer (7 episodes) 2016: Ordinary Lies (TV series) – executive producer (6 episodes) 2017: Trust Me (TV mini-series) – executive producer (4 episodes) 2018: Come Home (TV series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2018: The Detail (TV series) – executive producer (10 episodes) 2018: Butterfly (TV mini-series) – executive producer (3 episodes) 2019: Years and Years (TV mini-series) – executive producer (6 episodes) 2019–2020: Traces (TV series) – executive producer (6 episodes) 2020: The Stranger (TV series) - executive producer (8 episodes) 2021: It's a Sin (TV series) – executive producer (5 episodes) 2021: Finding Alice (TV series) – executive producer (6 episodes) 2021: Ridley Road (TV series) – executive producer (4 episodes) 2021: No Return (TV mini-series) – executive producer 2021: Stay Close (TV mini-series) – executive producer 2022: Queer as Folk (TV series) - executive producer (8 episodes)