Mainstreet Pictures is led by CEO Sally Haynes and Managing Director Guy de Glanville, and produces critically acclaimed, award-winning British drama for a global audience.
Mainstreet was founded in 2013 by Laura Mackie and Sally Haynes. Its first production, Unforgotten, written by Chris Lang, was an immediate hit on ITV. It drew nearly 10 million viewers by Series 4 and is now distributed by BBC Studios in over 210 territories worldwide.
For its first four series, Unforgotten starred Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar, earning countless 5-star reviews from, among others, The Guardian, The Times and The Telegraph, which called it “the detective drama of the decade”.
Unforgotten has also received numerous award nods, including BAFTA and RTS nominations for Best Drama Series for Series 4, a Best Actor BAFTA win and RTS nomination for Tom Courtenay in Series 1, a Best Actor Scottish BAFTA win and Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Mark Bonnar in Series 2, and a Best Actor BAFTA nomination for Alex Jennings in Series 3.
Mainstreet has branched out across genres, beginning with 2016 BBC comedy-drama I Want My Wife Back, written by Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni and starring Ben Miller. This was followed that same year by ITV domestic horror miniseries HIM, starring Fionn Whitehead, from writer Paula Milne.
In 2018, Mainstreet then produced the musical comedy-drama Age Before Beauty, by writer Debbie Horsfield, for the BBC. In 2019, between Unforgotten Series 3 and 4, Mainstreet released Gold Digger for the BBC, written by Marnie Dickens and starring Ben Barnes and Julia Ormond, whose performance The Daily Mail called “subtly superb” in its 5-star review. The show’s success led to an Italian remake, Deceitful Love, which was the #1 non-English show globally on Netflix in October 2024.
On its return, Unforgotten 5 continued to break new ground, as Sinéad Keenan joined the cast alongside Sanjeev Bhaskar. Lauded as “ITV’s finest police procedural” by The Telegraph, the season drew 8.4 million viewers, making it 2023’s number one drama on ITV1 and the biggest overall title on ITVX.
With Unforgotten 6 due to be released in early 2025, Mainstreet Pictures is poised for an exciting and ambitious future, with fresh innovations and new projects on the horizon.