“Line of Duty” and “Good Omens” director Douglas Mackinnon is prepping an Edinburgh-set paramedic drama that’s part of a growing slate at his recently launched production outfit Rugged Island Films. Mackinnon will be presenting the series in the Drama Co-Production Forum at Rome’s MIA Market, which runs Oct. 19 – 23.
“BurnTime” is a 6 x 60’ limited series set over six consecutive night shifts during the Edinburgh Festival, a raucous, month-long celebration of the arts in the Scottish capital. The series centers on 35-year-old Kylie MacDonald, a newly trained paramedic working her first shift in the so-called blue light cavalry, racing to save lives in her ambulance — even as a mystery surrounding a tragic episode from her past threatens to upend the life she’s carefully built.
Speaking to Variety ahead of the market, Mackinnon says the show takes its title from the chronic burnout that afflicts emergency workers on the job. “The amount of time that paramedics last in the U.K. on average is 18 months…because it’s so stressful and so chaotic and so messy for their lives,” he says.
“BurnTime” combines a strain of dark comedy with the propulsive energy that was a hallmark of Mackinnon’s two-year stint at the BBC’s “Line of Duty,” with the TV veteran saying, “Pain and laughter is the world that we’re in.”
Central to the storyline is the Edinburgh Festival, and “the weird and the wonderful people” it brings to the Scottish capital every year, according to Mackinnon. “The festival is like a character, not just a backdrop,” he says, channeling George Clooney to compare the show’s madcap narrative possibilities to those of another well-known hospital drama.
“‘The great thing about “E.R.” is that you could be walking down a corridor, open a door and there’s a Polish choir singing [in the room]. Then you just shut the door,’” Mackinnon says, paraphrasing the Hollywood star. “I kind of wanted that spirit to be in this, because that’s what Edinburgh’s like during the festival. I wanted to put a paramedic drama at 3 o’clock in the morning in that environment.”
As Rome’s MIA Market kicks off, Mackinnon says that “what’s exciting going into MIA is we’re at the beginning,” adding that he’s “looking for partners to build the series with me on an international level.”
“MIA is amazing for seeing people’s eyes light up at a project and going, ‘Oh, we could do something with this.’ Because I do think that ‘BurnTime’ can travel as well as…[be] a returning brand,” he says. “It can exist in other festivals in other parts of the world. It could go to Brazil or Germany or South Africa and have its own version. I think it’s going to work anywhere.”
With more than three decades of industry experience behind him, Mackinnon recently launched Rugged Island Films, a company that looks to capitalize on both his extensive body of work and Scotland’s production boom.
“The idea is to use my experience with huge shows like ‘Sherlock’ and ‘Good Omens’ and ‘Outlander and ‘Line of Duty’ and ‘Doctor Who’ and build shows of that scale from Scotland,” he says. “Instead of having them come to us, we’re going to be looking outwards. I know how to make these shows, and I want to make some of my own now.”
The company, which received slate funding from Screen Scotland, currently has roughly 10 series and five feature films in development, with MacKinnon bullish about expanding the outfit in the coming years.
Most of all, he’s bullish on his native Scotland. “We’ve had a really fantastic run of series with ‘Dept. Q’ and ‘Good Omens’ and ‘Outlander.’ For a small country, that’s punching above our weight, and that’s where all of us in the industry want to keep it going,” he says. “We want to keep punching above our weight, not just making shows for ourselves; we want to make shows for the world. And we’ve got the skill set to do it.”
There’s also the political will to make it happen, he says, pointing to programs like Lights, Camera, Capital, a new initiative launched by Screen Scotland and a consortium of Scottish business angels to bring together Scotland’s film and TV producing community with angel investors.
“There’s so much going on. It’s very exciting,” he says. “I think in the U.K., outside London, we’re the most exciting spot to be.”
The 12th edition of Rome’s MIA Market takes place Oct. 19 – 23.