Channel 4 has acquired Scottish Indie Firecrest Films, its first acquisition through the newly launched Creative Investment Fund.
The investment marks the first majority investment from the new fund, which was announced
in May 2025 as part of the channel’s twin-track approach to IP ownership under its Fast Forward strategy.
Firecrest Films is based in Glasgow and was founded by managing director Nicole Kleeman and creative director Iain Scollay, who will both continue to run the business. In 2017, the company received a minority investment from Channel 4’s Indie Growth Fund, which preceded the CIF.
Specialising in premium documentaries and factual content, Firecrest has won 16 BAFTAs, Best Small Indie of the Year (Edinburgh Television Festival Awards 2022) and Best Multi-Channel Production Company (Broadcast Digital Awards 2024).
READ MORE: Leeds agency gets cooking with Bake Off launch for “multi-million” sourdough campaign
Firecrest works with multiple broadcasters and streamers, and its best-known content includes BBC returning series Murder Trial, Murder Case, Paramedics on Scene and Highland Cops, Three Mothers, Two Babies and a Scandal (Amazon), Michael Palin: Travels of A Lifetime (BBC Two), The Secrets of TikTok Shop (Channel 4’s UNTOLD), Liar: The Fake Grooming Scandal (BBC Three), and Dispatches: The Truth About Nike and Adidas (Channel 4). The company recently secured a six-project deal with Amazon Prime Video for tiles including The Orkney Assassin, The Hunt for Shannon Matthews and Chasing the Tinder Predator.
Based in Govan, Firecrest currently employs almost 100 staff and freelancers and is renowned for its investment in new talent. In the last three years it has given 25 people their first jobs in TV. Firecrest also runs its own talent development scheme which is highly acclaimed in the industry and has earned the RTS Scotland Impact Award for its work developing behind-the-scenes talent across all levels in Scotland – to date the scheme has supported more than 40 individuals to take a significant step up, from entry level to exec.
Nicole Kleeman, managing director of Firecrest Films said: “We are incredibly proud of the hugely successful business and team we have built in Govan. Over the last eight years our partnership with Channel 4 has taken us from a small regional indie to one of the UK’s most significant documentary producers. This new relationship with Channel 4 will give us the security to futureproof the business and continue to grow talent and tell stories.”
Jonathan Allan, Interim CEO of Channel 4, added: “We have supported Nicole & Iain in their outstanding Scottish indie with their high-quality and critically acclaimed factual content for the last eight years. So I’m delighted that Channel 4 is now able to develop this important relationship with Firecrest Films through the first acquisition from the Creative Investment Fund, supporting our new strategy to invest in and own IP.
“This strategy will enable us to diversify revenues and secure Channel 4’s long-term sustainability through generating new income streams that are not wholly reliant on the advertising market. In turn we can then invest more into the independent sector and British storytelling.”
