Hat Trick TV for sale after cash crisis

One of the biggest producers of TV comedy is partially up for sale.

Hat Trick Productions, whose catalogue of shows includes Have I Got News For You and Father Ted, needs to raise money after tough financial times.

So it has brought in an investment banker to sell a minority share in the business, the Sunday Telegraph reports.

The news comes in the week the company announced it had sold the format of The Kumars At Number 42 to American network NBC in a lucrative deal.

For the year ending June 2001 - the latest for which accounts have been filed - the company lost £297,000 on a £12.6m turnover.

The figures were down from a £743,000 profit on a £14.9million turnover the previous year.

The company is owned by former comic Jimmy Mulville, a star of the Eighties satire series Who Dares Wins, and producer Denise O'Donoghue, who each have a 49 per stake.

Published: 4 Aug 2002