documentary

'Men get cameras, women get clipboards": the gender disparity in factual TV

In spite of the righteous noise and well-intentioned initiatives launched by broadcasters, streamers and producers in recent years, two new reports indicate that, not only is the industry still a long way off from gender parity in creative roles, it is moving into reverse.

Creative Diversity Network’s six-year overview of Diamond data from 2016-17 to 2021-22 found that, among the “key creative and authorial roles of writer, director and producer/director... the gender gap is widening”. Female director contributions remain particularly low, having fallen from 26.9% to 25.3%.

Big Zuu to pilgrimage to Mecca for BBC documentary

A close-up shot of Big Zuu

With a Lebanese father and a mother from Sierra Leone, Big Zuu grew up with Islam on both sides of the family. Although faith has remained hugely important for Zuu, growing up in London has meant living completely by the book hasn’t always been easy.

In Big Zuu Goes To Mecca, Zuu will go on the Umrah pilgrimage (a religious journey to Masjid al-Haram), visit one of Islam’s holiest cities, and examine what it means to be a “good Muslim.”

Craft and resolve: Ash Atalla, Clare Richards, Inzamam Rashid and Steve Hughes deliver RTS Student Masterclasses 2023

Inzamam Rashid talks to Helen Scott on stage at the RTS Student Masterclasses 2023

The RTS Student Master­classes drew a crowd of more than 300 this month to hear four of the industry’s top talents talk about their careers and offer first-hand advice on how to make a start in television.

Journalism

Inzamam Rashid, a Sky News correspondent based in the north of England, told the packed Journalism masterclass: “I always wanted to do the news, [as] a reporter, a newsreader or [working] behind the scenes.”

Winner of BBC Three Northern Docs Pitch on new documentary Stranger in My Family

“From the moment I got the results… I had a lot of questions I didn’t know what to do with. I thought… if I put it all into the structure of a film... then I could make sense of it.… Films have always saved me.” This was RTS Futures Award nominee Luke Davies, co-producer and subject of BBC Three’s life-affirming documentary Stranger in My Family.

Those results were from Davies’s DNA test. His journey to redefine his identity, uncovering two key, long-buried secrets that would turn his and his extended family’s worlds upside-down, was documented over the next four years.

Channel 4 orders one-off documentary on women searching for Russia’s missing men

An elderly woman stands in front of three graves, which have writing in Cyrillic

Russia’s Lost Sons (working title), an hour-long programme, was filmed over a year by filmmakers for ROMB, an independent Russian media outlet. 

Women looking for their sons, brothers and husbands join forces as they contend with mostly unresponsive government offices. They are left searching morgues and trawling social media for news, in desperate hopes of finding those they have lost. 

BBC Factual commissions new documentary to examine UK euthanasia laws

In a recent poll, 73% of Britons showed support for doctor-assisted euthanasia for the terminally ill. This comes alongside the ever-growing debate surrounding assisted suicide.

Carr (Silent Witness, Good Omens) has long campaigned against a change in the law, worrying that disabled people are scarcely consulted about the issue. Carr, who wrote and presented the documentary, said: “Too many disabled people will have had the experience of someone, often a complete stranger, telling them, ‘If I was like you, I’d rather be dead'.

"There is a mental health crisis that follows any war": James W Newton on the making of Evacuation, his powerful documentary on the fall of Kabul

It's the combination of such raw, immediate footage, and the completely candid testimonies of civilians and soldiers, that makes James W Newton's documentary on the Taliban's capture of Kabul in 2021, Evacuation, so indelible.

Laura Whitmore to investigate cyber-stalkers and incels in new docuseries

A blonde haired woman stands next to a drain pipe in an allyway lit with cold blue lighting

In one of the instalments, Whitmore will explore the world of ‘involuntary celibates’ or ‘incels’, a male-dominated online community where men who find it difficult to interact with women engage in anti-women discourse. In recent years these forums have moved off the internet and into the real world; in both the UK and US, incels have sought ‘vengeance’ for their feelings of rejection in the form of violence, including mass shootings.

Tommy Jessop goes to Hollywood in new feature-length documentary

Tommy Jessop with his teddy bear Roger

Actor and activist Tommy Jessop was born with Down Syndrome. Having always dreamed of having a leading role, Jessop felt his career was on the right path after starring in the fifth series of Line of Duty. Since then, however, further top roles have yet to materialise for Jessop, so he has decided to take the matter into his own hands.