Channel 4 swept the boards at last night’s Grierson Awards, which celebrate documentaries that have made a significant contribution to the form.
RTS award-winner Grayson Perry was crowned Documentary Presenter of the Year for his Channel 4 series Who Are You? with Grierson Trust chairman Lorraine Heggessey calling Perry a national treasure who “is an interviewer who gets under the skin of his subjects and an artist who captures their essence.”
Kenneth Law lives in Toronto, and is accused of sending over 1,000 packages of poison around the world to people intent on dying by suicide.
The deaths allegedly connected to Law now number in the hundreds, including 97 in the UK. Due to stand trial for numerous counts of first-degree murder in Canada, a conviction would officially make Law one of the most prolific killers in history.
Want to be a documentary maker? Hear why unique stories and fresh voices are always in demand on TV.
On this RTS Futures panel were the teams behind the RTS Award- winning documentary The Evolution of Black British Music (BET UK), and Channel 4's recently launched Youth News strand:
Cicelia Deane - Editorial and Commissioning Executive, BET UK
Femi Oyeniran - Film maker, actor & producer
Nicky Slimting Walker - Film maker, actor & producer
Debbie Ramsay - Commissioning Editor, News and Current Affairs, Channel 4
Two of the commissions will show the impact of life changing events and mark their anniversaries: The Miners’ Strike hears from those present at the biggest industrial dispute Britain has seen, and Atomic People takes testimony from those who suffered the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 80 years ago.
“News is a really good source of ideas, not just replicating the reporting but trying to think tangentially – think outside the box with it,” said Kat Hayes, an Emmy award-winning executive producer at Al Jazeera’s US digital media channel, AJ+, whose weekly documentary series reports on marginalised communities and social affairs.
Saleyha Ahsan, Documentary Filmmaker, Kat Hayes, Executive Producer at AJ+, and Amy Thompson, Assistant Producer at Silverback Films, reveal everything you need to know about documentary making at this RTS Futures event, chaired and produced by Ed Gove.
His Emmys were for Presumed Guilty, an exposé of Mexico’s judicial system, and The English Surgeon, which follows a neurosurgeon working in Ukraine’s Soviet-era hospitals.
His first film took him to Haiti to help make a documentary about the country's first free election in 30 years. “On the morning of that historic election, we discovered 23 people had been massacred in a school voting station,” recalled Smith.
Planet Earth: A Celebration takes eight of the most jaw-dropping moments from Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II, combining Attenborough’s melodic narration, with music from world-famous composer Hans Zimmer and rapper Dave.
The documentary takes viewers around the world, from the North of Norway, to the East Cape of South Africa, to the Indian Ocean, revealing how animals are adapting to their changing environments.
Produced by Barcroft Studios, the series of short films will explore a range of topics that surround young people in 2019 Britain.
A new style of debate show, Fix Up takes place inside the best-loved beauty salons and barbers in the UK.
The series tackles current issues and topics that impact Britain, including knife crime, abortion, cosmetic surgery, relationships and sex.
The Glasgow-born, Yorkshire-based entrepreneur, who lost his sight at the age of 18, runs Traveleyes, a company that takes blind and partially sighted travellers on action-packed holidays around the world.
