Celador

CPL Productions

Formerly	Celador
Industry	Television, film and theatre production, music publishing, radio station operation
Founded	December 1981; 40 years ago (1981-12)
Founder	Paul Smith CBE
Headquarters	Surrey , United Kingdom
Area served	United Kingdom and overseas
Brands	Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? Slumdog Millionaire The Descent
Services	Television production Broadcast syndication Light entertainment Motion picture production Commercial radio Music publishing Mobile entertainment
Subsidiaries	Celador Films Celador Theatrical Productions Lusam Music
Website	Official website

CPL Productions (formerly Celador) is a British entertainment company originally formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 as an independent television production company. It created and produced a number of popular light entertainment shows and is best known for the TV format Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and the film Slumdog Millionaire which, in 2009, collected seven BAFTAs, four Golden Globes and eight Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture.^[1]

The name Celador is a re-spelling of "cellar door", a phrase whose sound is often noted to be particularly euphonious.

History[]

Former logo for CPL Productions under Celador branding

Celador was founded by Paul Smith, CBE, and included Jasper Carrott as one of its founder shareholders. After establishing itself as a leading UK production company it expanded into TV format licensing, film production and radio station ownership and operation. By 2006, Celador was owned by Complete Communications Corporation, a firm which Smith (who owned 18%) wanted to break up so he could concentrate on radio and film production. Managing director and former 1990s Top of the Pops presenter Adrian Woolfe^[2] wanted to buy the television division outright as part of a management buyout with Danielle Lux, but this was split into parts with Lux completing the buy-out of Celador Productions without Woolfe and the rights to Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?. Celador Productions would be re-named it to CPL, before becoming a division of ProSieben's Red Arrow Studios.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?[]

Celador International and the rights and associated properties of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? were acquired by Dutch group 2waytraffic, eventually becoming part of Sony Pictures Television. In 2004, Celador commenced legal action against The Walt Disney Company for what it claimed were unpaid profits from Disney's licensing of the programme^{[clarification needed]} in the US. At a trial by jury in Los Angeles in June 2010, Celador was awarded $269m (£177m) in damages after ruling it failed to receive a fair share of profits.^[3]

CPL Productions[]

As of 2022, CPL Productions is making a new version of You Are What You Eat with Trisha Goddard and Amir Khan for Channel 5 and has teamed up with the Ranga Bee^[4] production company to make a six-part comedy series, written and created by Romesh Ranganathan and Benjamin Green for BBC Studios,^[5] called Avoidance.

Television[]

• Avoidance (co-production with Ranga Bee)
• Married at First Sight (UK version)^[6][7]
• You Are What You Eat (Channel 5 version)

Celador Entertainment[]

Television[]

• All About Me
• Canned Carrott (as well as many other stand up shows with Jasper Carrott)
• Commercial Breakdown (originially called Carrott's Commercial Breakdown)
• The Detectives (with Jasper Carrott)
• Everybody's Equal
• The Hypnotic World of Paul McKenna
• It's Been a Bad Week
• The People Versus
• Richard Digance's Greatest Bits
• Talking Telephone Numbers
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (format now owned by Sony)
• Winning Lines
• You Are What You Eat (Channel 4 version)

Films[]

• Dirty Pretty Things (2002) directed by Stephen Frears and starring Audrey Tautou and Chiwetel Ejiofor
• Separate Lies (2005) written and directed by Julian Fellowes and starring Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Rupert Everett
• The Descent (2006) directed by Neil Marshall and starring Shauna Macdonald, Natalie Mendoza, Alex Reid, Saskia Mulder, Nora-Jane Noone and MyAnna Buring
• Slumdog Millionaire (2009)^{[8][9][10][11][12][13][14]}
• The Descent Part 2 (2009)
• The Scouting Book for Boys (2010)
• Centurion (2010)

Celador Radio[]

Celador previously owned twenty-seven UK commercial radio stations including The Breeze and Sam FM networks and Fire Radio. In January 2017 Celador Radio acquired Anglian Radio’s five stations (North Norfolk Radio, Radio Norwich, The Beach, Town 102 and Dream 100) which broadcast across the Anglian region. In 2019 Celador Radio disposed of its entire radio division to Bauer Media.

The final portfolio comprised the following radio stations, which were sold to Bauer Radio in February 2019.

The Breeze Network[]

• The Breeze (Andover)
• The Breeze (Bristol)
• The Breeze (Basingstoke & North Hampshire)
• The Breeze (Bath)
• The Breeze (Bridgwater & West Somerset)
• The Breeze (Cheltenham & North Gloucestershire)
• The Breeze (East Hampshire & South West Surrey)
• The Breeze (Frome & West Wiltshire)
• The Breeze (Newbury)
• The Breeze (North Dorset)
• The Breeze (North Somerset)
• The Breeze (Portsmouth)
• The Breeze (Reading)
• The Breeze (Southampton)
• The Breeze (South Devon)
• The Breeze (Winchester)
• The Breeze (Yeovil & South Somerset)

Sam FM Stations[]

• Sam FM (Bristol)
• Sam FM (South Coast)
• Sam FM (Swindon)^[15]
• Sam FM (Thames Valley)

Anglian Radio Network[]

Other stations[]

• Fire Radio (Bournemouth and Poole)

People[]

Paul Smith, CBE, is Chairman of Celador Entertainment Limited which is the parent company for Celador Films, Celador Radio, Celador Theatrical and Lusam Music.

Ellis Watson, was the CEO until 2003. Following the new structure of Celador's previous constituent divisions, Celador Productions, (renamed CPL Productions) is now run by managing director (since 2003) Danielle Lux. Christian Colson left Celador Films as Managing Director in 2009 to form , now renamed Cloud Eight Films.

In the last few years, former managing director Adrian Woolfe^[16] has teamed up with Claudia Rosencrantz,^[17] the person who commissioned Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? originally at ITV, to launch the Studio 1 production company and an entertainment news network called LIT,^[18][19][20] which has been available to stream via Peacock since January 2021.

References[]

External links[]

• Official website