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Red Production Company, the scripted indie behind Queer as Folk and Last Tango in Halifax, is to close after 30 years.

According to a report in Broadcast, owner Studio Canal has told Red’s 12 staff in its London and Manchester offices that it is closing the label.

Red has published a notice on Companies House stating that chief executive Patrick Schweitzer, who has been in place since September 2023, has left the business.

A second notice confirms that Mary-Kathryn Kennedy, who runs StudioCanal’s TV business from the UK, has been made a director of Red.

The move suggests that StudioCanal TV UK could now take on Red’s slate and become the group’s UK production arm.

Red was founded in 1998 by Nicola Shindler, who ran the company until 2020 and then set up ITV Studios label Quay Street Productions.

It was best-known for a string of dramas created by Russell T Davies, including Queer As Folk, Cucumber, Years and Years and It’s a Sin, as well as Sally Wainwright’s Scott & Bailey, Last Tango in Halifax and the first two series of Happy Valley, Val McDermid and Amelia Bulmore's Traces, and several adaptations of Harlan Coben’s novels.

StudioCanal took a majority stake in Red in 2013.

Red’s slate had included a long-gestating co-production with Endor Productions of Neil Gaiman’s Anansi Boys for Amazon Prime.

However, the project had already been dealt the double blow of Endor’s closing and abuse claims levelled against Gaiman.

StudioCanal has yet to comment on the news.