FACTUAL
GENRE REPORT
THE BBC'S PLANS
With the huge boost in catch-up viewing over lockdown, BBC commissioners are looking for shows with iPlayer front of mind. Key categories in demand: scale and ambition (One Upon a Time in Iraq or The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty); pleasure (Inside Monaco: Playground of the Rich); gripping narratives (Murder 24/7, The Disappearance of Margaret Fleming). “People want to escape… but part of our mission is to take on the complexity of what’s happening,” says BBC2 controller, Patrick Holland. Upcoming orders include four-parter for Workerbee and Green Door, Idris Elba’s Fight School and 21st Century Women with Kirsty Wark from BBC Studios. With sport docs having risen up the broadcast agenda, BBC2 has The Premiership: A Whole New Ball Game (w/t), a four parter from Story Films in association with Studio 99. Diversity is being embedded in commissioning; Holland cites new series The Forgotten Empire, presented by David Olusoga, calling it “powerful and timely.” Holland also pinpoints another way that Covid has affected the zeitgeist: “People are craving the familiar to feel special. They want the stuff you might have overlooked, it suddenly has a real vividness …There’s a real slowing down.” New commission Mindful Escapes on BBC4 taps into this. Meanwhile, Jack Bootle, head of Commissioning for Science and Natural History is looking for three things that don’t get pitched enough: narrative box sets – real life stories with thrills and cliff hangers that have a science, medicine or engineering take at their heart; big names that unlock stories in an accessible way (such as Chris Packham or Freddie Flintoff); and high end access for medicine, infrastructure or engineering. On BBC 3, controller Fiona Campbell wants more fact ent ideas “noisy enough to cut through, with the likes of The Rap Game.” She also points to sport as an area of interest. Working towards a Spring tx, Meet The Khans: Big in Bolton from Chatterbox follows boxer Amir Khan and his wife, social influencer Faryal Makhdoom. The access doc – about business, family, and relationships – “epitomises what BBC 3 is about,” says Campbell.
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televisual.com Autumn 2020
the audience favourites. Top Gear is up and running, minus foreign trips, but The Apprentice has been put on pause. ITV and Channel 4 are making reality shows in Wales: Workerbee is in production on The Bridge and ITV is relocating I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here in Gwrych Castle in North Wales. Meanwhile smash hit Love Island is in the
sidings, making a real dent in the ITV schedule. With an audience crying out for light relief, Kevin Lygo, ITV’s director of TV has called out for “more reality, more fun entertainment shows that could be stripped or live.” In a world denied the chance to meet and
touch, dating shows are more wanted than ever, whether they can be made or not. BBC Three has filmed a pilot overseas for its new BBC Studios dance-meets-dating reality series Dance Crush. TLC’s 90 Day Fiancee is the gift that keeps
on giving, with more spin-offs in the pipeline. Amazon Prime recently announced a high school dating format from Studio Lambert, while Netflix has gained major traction with two shows – Love is Blind and Too Hot to Handle.
FLOW FROM THE STREAMERS Netflix is fired up about formats. After three years in earnest building an unscripted slate, the SVOD’s director of unscripted originals and acquisitions Nat Grouille believes “we’ve reached a point where we feel confident....We would love to find those sort of giant resonant formats, a bit like in the golden age 15 years ago when people came out with great shows and ideas and what ifs …..We like those what ifs… What if you’re on an island? That’s Survivor, What if people all lived in a house and you could watch? That’s Big Brother…What if you
“PEOPLE ARE CRAVING THE FAMILIAR TO FEEL SPECIAL” PATRICK HOLLAND, BBC2
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