Jonathan Drake

Creative Director/Joint MD

Jonathan Drake is joint Creative Director and also CEO of the group’s holding company Three River Studios. With more than 25 years experience in media businesses, Jonathan has been in the independent production sector since leaving BBC Worldwide in 2004.

Formerly Managing Director of Impossible Pictures he was responsible for bringing together funding for many blue-chip factual shows such as Prehistoric Park (ITV, Pro7, M6, Animal Planet), Perfect Disasters (Discovery Channel, M6, Pro7, Five), World War II: The Last Heroes (C4, History Canada, Yesterday), as well as drama series such as Primeval (ITV, UKTV, Pro7), Primeval New World (Space, Pro7, Watch) and Sinbad (Sky1).

Jonathan founded Three River Fiction in 2014 together with Steve Maher, to develop a slate of scripted projects including both original IP and adaptations – ranging from period detective mystery, to contemporary thrillers, historical dramas, science fiction and horror. Most recently he set up the TV adaptation of Deon Meyer’s best selling thriller novel, Trackers (M-Net, ZDF) delivering in fall 2019.

Steve Maher

Creative Director/Joint MD

Steve has worked in the animation and television industry as Art Director, Producer and Director for over two decades.

He has been involved in an array of projects from multi award-winning children’s series, on blockbuster exhibitions for the V&A, as the creator of numerous animated Doctor Who projects, and in recent years, as Creative Exec and Director at Impossible Pictures and Impossible Factual. This has resulted in the commissioning of a diverse range of specials and series for clients from National Geographic to History and Smithsonian Channels. Steve devised and produced a 90 minute documentary/drama telling the story of the Martian Invasion of 1913 that was nominated for Best International Drama at the 2015 Canadian Screen Awards.

Steve has a strong background in visual effects design and animation.

Benjamin McGrath

Head of Drama

Creative producer BEN MCGRATH has worked extensively in television drama as a story writer, editor and creative lead. Ben identified the IP that led to the commission and production of Deon Meyer’s ‘Trackers’, and executive script and story produced the six-part international drama series for HBO (Cinemax), ZDF and M-Net. He is currently developing the story for a second season while his original film about women’s football in Scotland has been commissioned to script by the BBC.

Ben joined scripted indie Three River Fiction in 2014 to lead its drama slate. Previously he was a storyline writer and editor on over 1000 episodes of ITV’s long-running serial drama Emmerdale, and prior to that was Development Editor for ITV Drama Commissioning. In that capacity he worked on a range of network productions including ‘Primeval’, ‘Poirot’, and ‘Law and Order UK’.