BBC Three to explore Britain’s Forgotten Men as part of new BBC documentary season
David Farnor | On 13, Jun 2017
BBC Three will explore Britain’s Forgotten Men as part of a new documentary season commissioned by the broadcaster.
The ambitious slate was unveiled by Clare Sillery, BBC Head of Commissioning for Documentaries (pictured above) at the Sheffield Documentary Festival, with acclaimed and established directors and producers including Mark Raphael, John Douglas and Lynn Alleway, plus emerging talent like Daniel Dewsbury and Marcus Ploughwright, turning their cameras upon the state of Britain today.
Returning to BBC Three after his work on KKK: The Fight For White Supremacy and Black Power: America’s Armed Resistance, filmmaker Dan Murdoch explores the many white working-class men struggling in today’s society, with low education, poor jobs, high crime. He spent a year on the fringes of Manchester in some of Britain’s most deprived estates. He finds anger, resentment and frustration. But also finds a spirit of camaraderie among the estates that are fighting to stay above water – fighting not to be forgotten.
The six-part series of 15-minute short documentaries was commissioned by Damian Kavanagh, Controller BBC Three and Max Gogarty, Executive Editor BBC Three. The Series Director is Dan Murdoch. the Producer is Holly O’Donnell and the Executive Producer is Max Gogarty.
Clare Sillery says: “This has been a fantastic year for BBC documentaries – we’ve celebrated success at the recent BAFTAs with wins for Exodus and Hillsborough as well as awards in factual drama for Murdered By My Father and Damilola, Our Loved Boy. We’ve also shown our first series of Hospital, which was a hugely important, timely and ambitious piece of work that will be returning this year. We’ve had single films with real impact, like Rio Ferdinand: Being Mum And Dad, which created a national conversation about men coping with grief as well as the highly acclaimed film from Sue Bourne, A Time To Live.
“Looking ahead, I’m delighted to announce a broad range of new commissions that demonstrate the ongoing ambition of documentaries at the BBC to speak to the now.”
“Series will range from an ambitious longitudinal project about social mobility in the UK, which will follow highly promising children from families on low incomes over three critical years at school, to an epic adventure with six Britons embarking on a road trip that will challenge our perceptions of what it means to live with disability today,” she adds.
“We’ll also be asking what family, community and home means to a generation of young people in the Yorkshire town of Redcar, and what the big decisions they make about their own futures will mean for their hometown, and with Lynn Alleway gaining privileged access to the very private world of high net worth divorces, these new films will take us right to heart of the cultural shifts happening in Britain today.”
“On BBC Four, we have a strong line-up of Storyville films to look forward to this summer, from a tense Icelandic murder mystery to Daisy Asquith’s Queerama, telling the story of an extraordinary century of gay experiences.”
Here’s the line up of documentaries on the other channels:
No Limits (BBC One)
Six Britons set out on an ambitious road trip by modified motorbike and modified 4×4 along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Vietnam. It’s a challenging journey for any independent traveller but this group will be tested more than most – everyone is disabled. Travelling almost 1000 miles, through traffic jammed cities to mountainous rural tracks, the group will be staying with remote indigenous people, exploring dramatic cave systems, and meeting locals – many of whom live with disability from the effects of the Vietnam War.
Holocaust (BBC Two)
A new landmark documentary from Arthur Cary and Morgan Matthews, this 90-minute film will use eyewitness testimonies from Holocaust survivors living in the UK today to tell the story of what is known as humanity’s darkest hour.
Only 20,000 survivors made it to the safety of Britain and now only a few thousand remain. Many of those alive today were children at the time, providing a unique perspective on the Holocaust and its aftermath. All of them had to work hard to build new lives in the UK.
Gifted (BBC Two)
What does it take for kids from disadvantaged backgrounds to succeed? Gifted, an observational documentary series, takes a unique look at social mobility, and the factors which affect it in Britain today, by filming with six highly promising children, who are all from families on low incomes, over three critical years. Transmitting two 60 minute episodes each year from 2018, the series will explore the challenges facing these children, as they progress from ages 13 to 16 and sit their GCSEs. Whether they’re talented mathematicians, show a flair for literature or are flourishing artists, these kids all have the potential to go far.
For Richer For Poorer: The Ex-Wives (BBC Two)
From film maker Lynn Alleway (Camila’s Kids Company: The Inside Story, Hotel India), this intimate documentary gains exclusive access to the private battles of high net worth divorce. It explores a usually hidden world that we rarely get to see – where the Mayfair homes, the Bentleys and yachts have to be split.
Redcar (BBC Two)
What does family, community and home mean to a generation of youngsters as they approach the threshold and responsibilities of adulthood? Set in the town of Redcar, North Yorkshire, this documentary series will tell the stories of the town’s young people as they decide where, and what, home really means and see what their future has in store for them.