Jane Tranter Tells Rome's MIA Market: 'If Everyone Else Is Zigging, You Zag'

By Elena Vasquez

Bad Wolf co-founder Jane Tranter told European producers at Rome's MIA Market on Tuesday that the only way to survive uncertain times is to "go in the opposite direction of everyone else's traffic."

The producer behind "Industry" and "Doctor Who" appeared in conversation with MIA's head of drama content, Paolo Ciccarelli. Her advice was blunt. "If everyone else is zigging, you zag. Because at some point, they're going to want your zag because they've run out of zigs," she said. "We have to be ready for it."

How did Tranter rise through British television?

Tranter began as a drama script editor at ITV franchise Carlton Television in the 1990s. There, she was told that "no drama that had a female protagonist was ever going to draw an audience." She joined the BBC, rose to head of drama, and in 2015 launched the award-winning production company Bad Wolf with co-founder Julie Gardner.

She rejected the idea that she was part of a movement. "I didn't think that I was leading a revolution. I just thought that I was going to make drama that I wanted to watch," she said. "And if it's drama that I want to watch, the drama should be inclusive of all. And in particular, I wanted to watch drama that had women in it."

Tranter soon joined a cohort of powerhouse female executives who reshaped British television.

Which series did she shepherd to screen?

The conversation covered several signature credits:

• "The Night Of" (HBO crime drama): "It took two Obama presidencies to see it through."
• "Succession" (multi-Emmy winner): "It was the best writers' room I have ever experienced."
• "His Dark Materials" (HBO fantasy, 2019–2022): it "had a heartbeat to it that was speaking to where the world was going."

On "His Dark Materials," Tranter said the series captured an early mood of rejection. "It was the very, very early days of what we see so much of these days, where people are just thinking, 'You know what? I don't want that system. I don't want to live in a way where the climate's going to be destroyed. I don't want to live in a way where my human rights are not given to me. I want to live in a different way.'"

What is happening with 'Doctor Who'?

Tranter revived "Doctor Who" at the BBC in 2003. In Rome, she said she "loved the show" but otherwise avoided discussing the series, whose future remains uncertain after Disney+ exited as co-financier last year.

Earlier this year, Tranter told Variety that Bad Wolf was commissioned to make 26 episodes and that "There was never any talk of more than that." Last month, the BBC launched a competitive tender inviting pitches from producers to reboot the series. Contacted by Variety after her Rome appearance, Tranter's team said she would not answer any questions about "Doctor Who."

What is 'The Other Bennet Sister'?

Tranter promoted the period drama "The Other Bennet Sister," produced by Bad Wolf with the BBC and BritBox, as proof that defying conventional wisdom reaches audiences.

"If someone says to you, 'You can't make period drama. No one's buying it. You can't make fantasy. No one's buying it. You can't make a drama set in finance. No one will buy it.' Make it. Just find a way and make it," she said.

The series adapts Janice Hadlow's novel of the same name. It follows Mary, the less charismatic sister of "Pride and Prejudice" protagonist Lizzie Bennet, as she tries to escape her family's shadow. Ella Bruccoleri of "Call the Midwife" plays Mary.

Tranter called Mary an "outsider" who is "just slightly outside the norm" — and, crucially, a woman society "doesn't really think should be an acceptable face of a woman."

"Mary doesn't look like people want a woman to look like. She doesn't sound like people want a woman to sound like. She doesn't behave like a society wants a woman to behave like. And yet Mary Bennet is her own woman," Tranter said.

She closed with a call to her fellow producers. "Stories about people being accepted for who they choose to be are the kind of stories that I will keep making until someone carries me out in a wooden box. And I would really urge you to keep making those kinds of stories," she said. "We have to group together. We have to tell stories that will change the lack of empathy in our world. And if I leave you with anything from my ramblings about my career, it is to look into yourselves and go and tell your own stories that will make our world a more empathetic place."

The 12th edition of Rome's MIA Market runs Oct. 19–23, giving producers four more days to test whether Tranter's zag-first strategy catches on.