Drama duo set up Riverbird Films

Stan Lee’s Lucky Man co-creator Neil Biswas and Trigger Point actor Manjinder Virk have joined forces to launch a drama indie.

Riverbird Films’ development slate includes Ghost in the Machine, a six-part thriller from writer Moira Buffini (Harlots), dark comedy Bagel, and three-part drama Home, which is written by Virk.

The pair, who both grew up in working classs immigrant families, said they want to combine their professional knowledge with their cultural experience as British Asian practitioners in their field to tell diverse stories.

The company, which is registered in Beckenham, will nurture new voices for TV, film and theatre and produce what Biswas called “bold new, genre-based stories that are both compulsive and mean something deeper to those watching”.

He added: “Finding that magical balance between entertainment and emotional depth is what drives us.” 

Virk said: “There are so many stories left untold, we want to seek voices and perspectives sometimes unheard, as well as creating work that excites, entertains, makes us laugh and cry and we hope, stays with an audience long after they’ve watched.” 

As well as acting in ITV dramas Trigger Point and Midsomer Murders, BBC1’s Shetland, Channel 4’s Britz and the movie The Arbor, Virk has directed and produced several short films including Things We Never Said, which she is now expanding into a feature.

Biswas meanwhile is a writer and director with credits including Channel 4’s Skins, Second Generation and Bradford Riots and Miramax’s The Turkish Detective, as well as Sky comedy-drama Stan Lee’s Lucky Man.