"It's all been a bit overwhelming actually," says the drama producer Pippa Harris happily, reflecting on response to The Hollow Crown, BBC2's Shakespeare tetralogy that came to a close on Saturday. Made by Neal Street Productions, the indie Harris founded almost a decade ago with her childhood friend Sam Mendes and former Donmar Warehouse executive producer Caro Newling, the films have attracted widespread praise for their ambition and quality.
While the BBC considers commissioning further Shakespeare adaptations, Neal Street is not short of projects, including the late Nora Ephron's last film script. Set up in 2003 primarily for film and theatre productions, the indie is also behind Call the Midwife, BBC1's hit Sunday night drama based on the memoirs of Jennifer Worth, that over six weeks increased its audience to more than 11 million. A Christmas special is on the way, followed by a new eight-part series in early 2013.
"Because we were looking for film material, some of the very best TV material comes to us almost by accident. You'd be reading for film and occasionally come across stuff and think: 'This would be a brilliant television show'," says Harris.
With the Shakespeare adaptations, Harris and Mendes certainly aimed high. "Originally Sam and I tried to convince the BBC to do the entire canon," she explains, adding that there was "a lot of enthusiasm" for this. "But the practicalities of committing that much money over that many years is problematic."
And now? Flushed with success from the run of Richard II, Henry IV parts one and two, and Henry V, Harris is hoping that it might be up for discussion again. "I hope so. Obviously we're hoping that now they seem to have sparked people's imagination, maybe we'll be able to make some more," she says.
Harris and Mendes grew up on the BBC Television Shakespeare – adaptations of every play, broadcast between 1978 and 1985. Despite their varying quality – some of them are "unengaging" suggests Harris, rather charitably – she credits the films with introducing them to and instilling in them a love of the bard's language.
Their aim was to create something equivalent in its faithful approach to the text, but of more consistent quality. "They feel like a piece of homework. We wanted these to feel like an absolute treat, something that had been made with a huge amount of care and attention," Harris says.
Not to mention cash, of course. The Hollow Crown films are not expensive television by the standards of Downton Abbey or Upstairs Downstairs, argues the producer. But shot entirely on location, with large casts, they are certainly not cheap.
BBC Worldwide turned down the international and DVD rights, according to Mendes, because they "were not convinced that Shakespeare would sell internationally". Luckily, NBC Universal stepped into the breach.
At the very least Harris would like to finish the cycle of history plays. "I'd love to continue through to Henry VI and Richard III, because it feels like a half completed journey," she says – adding that the nation's top directors would also be keen; many have been in touch to stake their claim on future plays should they be made.
Neal Street's other big TV success this year, Call the Midwife, came about after Harris optioned Worth's trilogy, and asked Cranford writer Heidi Thomas to adapt it.
But even she was surprised by the viewing figures. "I thought we'd made a really great show and obviously hoped for a good audience. But I was thinking maybe six million viewers. When we started at eight and continued to grow, that seemed astonishing."
Ask her the secret of Call the Midwife's appeal, and Harris admits it's difficult to put your finger on what exactly made it such a phenomenon. "I think that mix of joy and sorrow, humour and pathos which Heidi does so well, was undoubtedly a part of it. People quite liked being made to cry. They enjoy that level of emotion."
But there is more to it than that: there's the social history element, and a cast that includes established stars such as Pam Ferris alongside newcomers and Miranda Hart in her first dramatic role.
"You feel you're learning a bit about British history, the history of the NHS, of midwifery. And we're looking at a period relatively close to our own that seems to be very very distant in terms of provision for childcare," says Harris. "It's almost like looking at a far distant period drama – like a Dickensian drama sometimes. You can't quite believe people lived in those conditions."
The show will air on PBS in the US this autumn, in the same pre-watershed slot that proved so successful for the BBC – and slightly stressful for Harris, who admits that it was not conceived as a pre-watershed show. "I felt it was quite tough, not least because of the mentions of syphilis and dead babies and so on. But I think people responded to that."
The drama was not however, an instant success with executives: while Ben Stephenson, the BBC's controller of drama commissioning was supportive and keen, it wasn't until Danny Cohen became controller of BBC1, that the show was greenlit.The second series will rely less on Worth's memoirs, with more elements coming from the writers. "But we've still used the characters Jennifer writes about and the storylines she created in the books as the bedrock for the show," says Harris.
Given such notable 2012 successes, it is perhaps unsurprising that the producer is upbeat about the state of British drama. The former head of BBC drama commissioning – she left when she felt she'd "exhausted all the challenges, or been exhausted by the challenges" – is full of fight when it comes to UK programming, highlighting last week's Emmy nominations for Downton Abbey and Sherlock.
"I think as Brits we're often guilty of beating ourselves up about US drama. You often read about how we don't have anything to rival Mad Men or The Sopranos. But the truth is we get the very, very best here. In terms of the broad spectrum of drama being made in the UK at the moment, it absolutely rivals the American drama."
To follow the success of Call the Midwife on Sunday evening, Harris has recently optioned Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce mysteries. With their 11-year-old detective solving crimes in rural England, they are "perfect Sunday night fare".
She is also working on Grand Hotel, an eight-part contemporary thriller about a siege in a Paris hotel with Canal Plus – written by Spooks writer Richard McBrien, it will be in English but filmed in Paris. While more French inspiration comes with a remake of French cop drama Spiral with BBC Worldwide; Homeland writer Meredith Stiehm is responsible for the adaptation.
But for Harris, the project she feels particularly passionate about is Ephron's last film; an adaptation of ITV's Lost in Austen which the When Harry Met Sally writer developed with Neal Street as a movie. "It's a brilliant script," says Harris. "We didn't know she was ill and her death has been a terrible shock – but we all feel that we now believe even more strongly that we would like to get the film made as a tribute to her. It's a wonderful project and one of her great pieces of writing."