It's beyond exciting says Dragons' Den and Strictly star Sara Davies as Crown Works gets go-ahead
“It's beyond exciting to see this dream that’s been talked about for some time turned into a reality”
The words of County Durham entrepreneur and star of Dragons’ Den and Strictly Come Dancing, Sara Davies, following the announcement of £38m of new funding to get work underway on the construction of phase one of Crown Works Film Studios.
The new funding is being provided by North East mayor Kim McGuinness through the North East Combined Authority, and today (March 10) Sara joined the mayor at the site of what is soon to by the largest film and TV studios in the North.
Speaking to the Echo, Sara said: “As someone who’s involved in the world of television, it’s beyond exciting to finally see we are starting to put spades in the ground and make this dream that they’ve been talking about here in the North East for some time into a reality.
“This is so long overdue and it’s wonderful to see we’ve got the investment and we can show people in the North East that we are putting our money where our mouths are and we are actually making this happen.
“As someone from the region who has been making television here for the last few years, it will be amazing to finally have the infra-structure.
“I know we’ve got the camera crews, the sound engineers, hair and make-up artists, the set dressing people, the producers and directors - we’ve always had that talent, but we have not had the infra-structure for them to work here.
“We’ve been able to make productions on location, but we have not been able to make big studio productions. All of our talent has had to travel the length and breadth of the country to go where the work is.
“By putting these studios in place place, we can start to attract the opportunities to come here to see the talent we have in the region and to really make the most of it.”
Due for completion by the end of 2027, phase one will see the creation of a 125,000 sq ft film studio including a new build facility and refurbishment of the Doxford Printworks building.
The initial development will be far smaller than the original plan to create a £450m multi-studio facility which would potentially make Sunderland the biggest movie production site in Europe.
However, from a business perspective Sara believes a more gradual phased approach makes economic sense.
She said: “What we are building now is a smaller version of what the original aspiration was. Commercially, as a business woman I actually think this phased approach is a much better place to start - it’s far less risky.
“We are going to build something that’s manageable and that I know investors in this region are confident they can bring the work to. From small acorns, mighty trees can grow.
“We need to have that start point and we can then show the rest of the country, the rest of the world what we are capable of doing here and the talent we have.
“From there we can start to build opportunity and attract more investment. We will have proof of concept.”