UKTV’s factual channel Yesterday has ordered a 10-part obs doc about model railway manufacturer Hornby. Hornby: A Model World (10 x 60-minutes) is in production with UK prodco Rare TV and will follow the company and its brands – including Hornby Railways, Corgi, Airfix and Scalextric – as they gear up for new product launches. The […]
UK production house Rare TV’s medical documentary Contagion has been picked up for re-broadcast in several countries in light of the Coronavirus pandemic. The one-hour special was originally commissioned by BBC Four and first broadcast in 2018. It was retransmitted on the UK pubcaster last month and has since been sold by UK-based distributor Magnify […]
Heston Blumenthal joins C4, Netflix culinary show Celebrity chefs Heston Blumenthal, Carla Hall and Niklas Ekstedt have signed up for Crazy Delicious, the first unscripted co-production between the UK’s Channel 4 and Netflix. The 6 x 60-minute series is set on an edible set and follows three contestants who attempt to turn common ingredients into […]
UK-based factual producer Rare TV has appointed Channel 4 executive Alexander Gardiner as its CEO, replacing Antony Fraser. Gardiner was most recently a consultant commissioning editor at Channel 4 having previously been managing director of UK prodco Shiver, where he led the restructuring of the ITV Studios-owned outfit. He has also served as creative director […]
BBC Four has commissioned Rare TV for a feature documentary on Scotland’s longest river. In The River: A Year In The Life Of The Tay, award-winning writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald observes the Tay — which begins as a small Highland watercourse and ends as a vast torrent spilling into the North Sea at Dundee — over the […]
Smithsonian Channel has commissioned UK producer Rare TV for a six-part series exploring the innovations that changed the world. Inside Mighty Machines is hosted by ex-NASA jet engineer Chad Zdenek and examines the engineering principles that make machines such as a 747 jumbo jet or a North Sea oil rig run. Along the way, Zdenek […]
BBC Two in the UK and BBC Northern Ireland are to tell the largely overlooked tragedy of the British passenger ship HMHS Britannic. Tragic Twin: The Britannic Disaster has Rare TV-owned 360Production attached to produce, with Renny Barlett directing, and Emma Parkins and Justin Hardy executive producers. The doc will explain how the Britannic, which […]
Britain-based 360Production has hired Belinda Cherrington from Renegade Pictures to become its first creative director of UK factual. Cherrington is an experienced executive producer, who among other roles launched Mentorn Media’s US development office in 2011. Her new company is a factual-focused London- and Northern Ireland-based firm that was acquired by Rare TV in 2014. […]
Antony Fraser, CEO of Rare TV answers TBI’s questions as to why now is a good time launch a new production group. Antony Fraser’s new group, Rare TV, is planning to build a UK-based stable of nimble factual prodcos that the increasingly large super-indie monoliths may overlook. The Ingenious Ventures co-founder and his business partner, […]
Shine International has acquired rights to a pair of series from UK broadcasters. From ITV is the upcoming World Productions drama Code of a Killer, which is based on a true story. It follows David Threlfall as a 1980s detective solving a double murder as the discovery of DNA fingerprinting is unearthed nearby. From Channel […]
