FACTUAL TV
THE FUTURE OF FACTUAL FORMATS
vehicle: Your Home Made Perfect, now joined by Your Garden Made Perfect. Dubai Hustle for BBC3 will see three young people going to work for a property company in the Persian Gulf. While Idris Elba’s Fight School from Worker Bee is a London-based four-part social experiment. “I want a slightly sideways look at these
territories,” says Catton. “We have to think so strategically about ideas. Is it delivering scale? Can it sit on iPlayer and do a great job? Or is it a lower cost, higher volume idea, bringing audiences with habitual viewing?”
SQUARING THE CIRCLE At Channel 4, a £30m global format fund was launched last year, focused on driving numbers to All4. The cancelling of The Circle has left a format-shaped hole in the broadcaster’s schedule. “We are strongly in the market for reality, “ says Alf Lawrie, newly promoted to head of factual entertainment at Channel 4, with his brief now including formats. Any replacement for The Circle, which performed well for Channel 4 with younger viewers, “would need some high concept, something with the cleverness of The Circle, but hopefully broad.” He’s open to something that could run to six or 10 episodes, but equally it could be a stripped show at 10, with 20 or 30 parts. Lawrie describes his quest for “two obvious things: poster-sized and mid-priced returnables.”
ABOUT IDEAS. IS IT DELIVERING
STRATEGICALLY TO THINK SO
HIGHER VOLUME IDEA, BRINGING AUDIENCES
SCALE? OR IS IT A LOWER COST,
WITH HABITUAL VIEWING?”
“WE HAVE
The former, in the mould of The Island, or Hunted, “epic, grand adventure that jumps into the unknown - dramatic and brilliant shows… the quest is perennial.” He’s happy to settle for non-returnable, citing The British Tribe Next Door, which had huge impact for the channel. Next to this, Lawrie’s also looking for the
“bastions of the schedule”, along the lines of Grand Designs, Below Deck or Child Genius, “a window into a precinct and a world that we don’t necessarily see on screen… it’s a key priority and if people have thoughts on those fronts then I’m incredibly interested.” He’s also on the hunt for ‘arced’ shows, dreaming of another Gogglebox or Dragon’s Den. “We’re very keen to pilot things with that shape,” he says, pointing to pilots that the channel made for Spying on My Family, My Week as a Muslim or hit dating show Five Guys a Week.
THE WIDER WORLD With relationship shows now making a post Covid come-back, next stop has to be travelogues. Before lockdown, the genre had a huge lift, with the BBC’s Race Across The World mashing travelogue and competition together to great effect. “People want travelogues again,” said Guy Davies, commissioning editor, Factual at Channel 5 speaking at Sheffield DocFest in June. The channel has had success in the past with travelling celebrities, such as Michael Palin. “It’s about using that talent, in a way as a weapon against the streamers. Names are going to be really important.”
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televisual.com Summer 2021
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