Leeds-based Duck Soup was founded by Bekki Wray-Rogers, Libby Durdy and Jessica Holyland with an ambition to make fresh TV dramas and feature films, championing the voices of underrepresented talent with unique stories to tell.

Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund provides additional support to the UK independent creative sector by investing in UK-based SMEs, taking minority stakes to help them to grow their business to the next stage.

Caroline Murphy, head of Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund, said: “Duck Soup is at a really exciting moment in its development with a growing number of advanced projects on its slate and I’m thrilled the company is joining the Indie Growth Fund.”

Between them Ms Wray-Rogers, Ms Durdy and Ms Holyland share more than 50 years’ experience in producing content across a range of genres including feature films, drama and factual entertainment.

Ms Wray-Rogers said: “We are delighted that the Growth Fund is investing in us at this crucial stage.

“We’ve been busily building a strong slate of drama series and films that we are excited to see fly over the next few years and are thrilled and honoured that we will embark on this next chapter with the invaluable support and mentorship of the Channel 4 Growth Fund.”

Prior to founding Duck Soup, the trio worked on well known television dramas including the multi-BAFTA winning This Is England and the International EMMY award winning Utopia series.

Since September 2020, Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund has invested in four other indies – Big Deal Films, Proper Content, Uplands Television and Yeti.