The Shaftesbury Theatre is owned by parent company DLT Entertainment, an international entertainment company engaged in a broad range of television production and distribution, talent agencies and live performance.
Established in 1962 by Donald Taffner Sr. and now run by his son, Don Taffner Jr., DLT has a reputation for producing popular television programmes, which including Three’s Company in the US which was based on the UK’s Man About The House. Its significant UK production successes include nine series of As Time Goes By with Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer and eleven series of the award-winning My Family with Robert Lindsey and Zoe Wannamaker. Its most recent TV productions were the video game television series Dara O’Briain’s Go 8 Bit for UKTV (Dave) and Monster Court for CBBC. It is currently in development with a number of scripted and non-scripted projects.
In 2018 DLT expanded its television production activities in the UK through the acquisition of Vera Productions whose past productions include Getting On, Million Pound Jewellers, Bremner, Bird, and Fortune, and numerous Dispatches such as President Trump’s Dirty Secrets, Politicians for Hire: Cashing in on Brexit and £2 Million passport – Welcome to Britain.
DLT has significant partnerships with various talent agencies that focus primarily on the UK comedy scene these include The Galton Agency, Blue Book Artist Management, Hannah Layton Management, The Soho Agency and Milburn Browning Associates.
DLT launched an audio division in 2020 and has produced a number of programmes including for Audible, Very Modern Quests hosted by Alice Levine and Panic Room lead by John Robins.
Alongside the Shaftesbury Theatre the Company is also engaged in live entertainment through the comedy promoters, Impatient Productions and the agency/promotor Gag Reflex. Blue Book Artist Management is also active in live entertainment through The Boat Show, London’s finest floating comedy club, at the Tattershall Castle which is moored on the Thames at Victoria Embankment. Finally, it is an active investor in West End and Broadway productions, having supported over ten productions in recent years.
The companies represent a breadth of work across television, audio, live touring, stand-up comedy, theatre and publishing, developing synergy between these elements to create new opportunities for DLT, the agencies and their clients.