Two of the biggest shows of the past decade were produced by Francesca Moody, who insists she did not set out to chase a hit. Moody relies on instinct rather than calculation.
The London producer Moody, who works behind the scenes on Fleabag and Baby Reindeer, gave an interview to NPR while sitting in a makeshift office in Edinburgh during the city’s annual Fringe festival. She has spent 38 years building her career, and her message to other producers is straightforward: stop chasing the next big thing and start trusting your instincts.
“I think ultimately it’s all about my personal taste, because I’m a producer who is really led by their gut,” Moody told NPR. “As soon as I deviate from that and I pick something because I think it’s going to be super commercial and go straight to the West End, or because it’s going to be adapted into the next TV series, it just won’t be as good.”
The Fringe Marketplace
This year’s Edinburgh Fringe is a vast marketplace of comedy, theater, cabaret, and many shows that defy simple description. With more than 4,200 productions on offer, the festival is an overwhelming place to hunt for talent.
The Fringe serves as a vital proving ground for creators such as Moody, where nearly anything qualifies as a performance, and nearly any performance functions as an audition. Among the offerings: a Shrek burlesque parody, a solo act drawn from the 2002 Hilary Duff Disney Channel original movie Cadet Kelly, and an unscripted hour called David Elms Describes a Room.
Moody has shown a talent for spotting the unlikely thing that could spread past Edinburgh. She helped bring both Fleabag and Baby Reindeer to the Fringe years before either became global television phenomena.
The Fizzy Feeling
Fleabag gave Moody her big break, yet her professional life started with just a single page. Late in 2012, Phoebe Waller-Bridge had drafted roughly a page of what would eventually become her breakout show.
“We really didn’t know what it was yet at all,” Moody said.
When Moody was already working on a play with Waller-Bridge, he asked to read what she had written down. He immediately became hooked.
“You know when you get that fizzy feeling when you read something that you think is really exciting, and it doesn’t really matter that it’s not all there yet?”
Moody got a spot at the Fringe on the strength of that fizzy feeling alone. When the show reached Edinburgh, it was still rough around the edges.
Mixed reviews greeted the production. In The Guardian, critic Lyn Gardner wrote that “Waller-Bridge hasn’t produced a flawless piece of writing,” even while acknowledging that despite its flaws, it was “hugely distinctive.”.
Moody says the lack of polish was part of the point. “The Fringe is this place for messy, complicated, unfinished, scrappy stuff because it’s those bits that you’ll find the magic in,” she says.
Trust and Deadlines
Fleabag’s production was fraught with anxiety. Still only 26, Moody learned two key lessons during that period: trust is essential for the producer-artist relationship, and a firm deadline is just as vital.
Moody showed up at Waller-Bridge’s house a week prior to rehearsals to look over the script, and he found that save for a few Post-It notes scattered across the floor, the play had yet to be written.
Amongst her colleagues, Moody had become known for her keep-calm-and-carry-on demeanor, and she reassured Waller-Bridge before locking her in a room and telling her to keep writing.
A colleague later found Moody hyperventilating in a closet.
“I was wondering what would happen if this play didn’t get made,” she said.
The closing chapter came together on the train ride up to the festival, when there were at least three possible endings still under consideration.
How Moody Became a Producer
The Fringe began for Moody as a compromise. When she informed her parents that acting was her goal, they proposed she take an internship instead, working on the organizing side of the operation — a somewhat steadier route than the stage.
Her first job outside her home involved distributing flyers and shifting sets at the Fringe. She got it while she was still young and had never left home before. She says she hasn’t skipped a year at the Fringe since.
A long time after she finished drama school, she met an old friend one afternoon at the Fringe who told her he was starting to produce and wondered if she would assist on a project. She agreed. Even though the project never turned into a major opportunity, it sparked something inside her.
“I suddenly realized everything that I loved about acting, producing was actually serving that in a better way,” she said. “I felt like I had way more autonomy.”
Though producing kept her at the heart of the creative process, it also gave her a voice in what was made — and how.
Moody’s first Fringe performance came at 23, when she starred in a play titled The Ducks, penned by playwright Michael McLean. That debut launched her beyond the Fringe and into London theater at large, paving the way for her major breakthrough with Fleabag in 2013.
Five years later, she launched her own company, Francesca Moody Productions.
Baby Reindeer and the Train Ride
At roughly the same moment, some friends handed Moody a script for Baby Reindeer, a speech penned by the Scottish actor Richard Gadd. The piece drew on his own encounters with a person who followed him.
On the train from Norwich to London, Moody began reading the script and found herself so engrossed that she remained seated long after the train had arrived at the station, finishing the last few pages.
She didn’t know how she was going to produce it.
She considered instead that “By hook or by crook, I’m going to do it.”, and thought to herself that it was so.
In 2019, Baby Reindeer premiered at the Fringe. Five years later, it became a Netflix series — and just like Fleabag, a global hit.
The Stamp of Approval
Both shows brought about a change for Moody, turning her name into a mark of quality at the Fringe.
Personal preference is what guides Moody’s project selection, not any strategic planning or numerical analysis. She prefers to follow her instincts rather than chase trends.
A Comparison of Moody’s Two Hits
| Show | How Moody Found It |
|---|---|
| Fleabag | Asked to read a page Waller-Bridge had written down |
| Baby Reindeer | Read a script sent by friends while on a train |
The Verdict on Moody’s Method
The tale of Moody’s rise serves as a note that fortune frequently arrives by chance rather than design. Her aim was never to chase a hit; instead, she sought merely to create music that pleased her own ear.
The approach she uses is straightforward: trust the fizzy sensation. When a script stirs excitement within her, even when it remains unfinished, she commits to it. Should a project feel forced upon her, she walks away instead.
The method succeeded on two separate occasions. It will not always succeed. Still, it represents a more balanced approach than following whatever the latest trend happens to be.
Moody understands that the Fringe is where messy, unfinished, scrappy, and complicated things live. That’s where the magic comes from, she believes.
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