Fleabag and Baby Reindeer producer on pressure to bring the next hit show to the Fringe

All eyes have been on Francesca Moody this year as festival goers eagerly await the next potential hit TV series to come out of the Edinburgh Fringe.

After producing Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s award winning production of Fleabag at the Fringe in 2013, which was later turned into a TV series by BBC Three and Amazon Studios, the pressure was already on for the 36-year-old.

But when Francesca’s 2019 production of Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer went on to have record-breaking Netflix success when it was turned into a series for the online streaming platform earlier this year, she became the one to watch this August.

On her first impression of Baby Reindeer, Francesca said she couldn’t put the script down from the moment she started reading it.

She said: “I think the story I always like to tell about ‘Baby Reindeer’ is that I was sent a version of the script and I was on a train travelling back to London from Norwich and I started reading it.

“I did not look up from the moment I started reading it to the point the train pulled into London. I still had five pages to go and I just read and read and read.

Richard Gadd's during his production of Baby Reindeer at the Fringe in 2019. — Richard Gadd’s during his production of Baby Reindeer at the Fringe in 2019. Andrew Perry via Francesca Moody Productions

“I think there was just a kind of gut instinct around it and I just knew that by hook or by crook I wanted to produce that show- and I felt that the right place to do that would be Edinburgh.

“It’s not that I knew what kind of journey that show would go on necessarily, just that I knew that it was a show that I wanted to produce because it just felt so well-written, well-crafted, so original, like nothing else I’d ever read before and it was just like a hands-down thriller.”

Similarly with Fleabag, Francesca said it was the originality of the story that drew her in.

“It was a very short piece of comedy story-telling that Phoebe gave to me and I think it was so funny and it made me laugh straight away and I just really wanted to spend more time with that character,” she said.

Phoebe Waller-Bridge in her 2013 production of Fleabag at the Fringe 2013. Richard Davenport via Francesca Moody Productions

“We really didn’t know what the show was until we were in Edinburgh. We were sort of making it right up until the last moment to the point that the ending wasn’t written until we were on the train going up to Edinburgh.

“Just knowing myself how brilliant Phoebe was then, and really respecting her as an actor already, and just the idea of working with her on something original was just really exciting.”

Returning to Edinburgh with three new shows this year, Francesca says the biggest thing she looks for when on the hunt for her next show is authenticity.

This year she’s brought chamber musical ‘I’m Almost There’ featuring Todd Almond, ‘Weather Girl’, a dark, one-woman show about a weather girl who has a break-down because of climate change and ‘V.L’ a sequel to the 2018 Fringe production of Scottish show “Square-Go”.

I'm Almost There, Fringe 2024. — I’m Almost There, Fringe 2024. Francesca Moody Productions via Francesca Moody Productions

Francesca said: “The thing that’s most interesting to me is just an artist or a story that feels totally authentic, so not trying to be similar or the same to anything else.

“Just something that feels truly original to them that often the work feels quite funny.

“I think the Fringe is in the business of entertainment. So something that can lure an audience in, make them laugh, entertain them and then stick the knife in right at the end.”

With hundreds of festival goers flocking to her latest shows with the hopes of seeing the next “big hit”, Francesca said she hasn’t let the pressure get in the way of her work.

“Of course there’s the pressure. I guess you sometimes feel that you’re only as good as the last thing that you produced,” Francesca said.

“Success, I think, at the Fringe isn’t always about a show in the West End or a Netflix TV series, because the Fringe is a place for connectivity in other ways. So, it never worries me the idea of ‘will this be the next Fleabag or not?’ because I try not to think like that.

“I think that that’s the thing that will stop the work from being really good.”

After launching her production company Francesca Moody Productions in 2018, Francesca said it’s the opportunity for artists that keeps her coming back to the Fringe.

She said: “It feels like there are a lot of shows here, you know 3,000 plus shows. Actually, the artistic director of the National Theatre Scotland or the producer of SISTER TV production company, or the artistic director of the Royal Court could come and see your show and that could really help the development of the work or your career.

“So I think that’s why we keep returning to the Fringe, because it’s a place for launching work.”