UK-based factual producer Rare TV has appointed Zig Zag Productions’ Chris Sanders to an internationally facing development role. Sanders becomes development producer at the Digging For Britain prodco and will specialise in projects for the global market. He report into VP of US development Christian Broadhurst and joins from Zig Zag, where he was assistant […]
UK pubcaster BBC One has commissioned Expert Witness, a new 15-part BBC Daytime factual series exploring how expert witness testimony helped to solve some of the UK’s most complex crimes using forensic science. Produced by Belfast-based Rare TV, the series will come to BBC One in autumn, with each episode going behind the scenes of […]
Factual producer Rare TV has promoted Susannah Zeff to become its first head of UK development and revealed its first domestic commission for a true-crime series. Zeff has been with Rare TV for a decade and has been behind shows including Chitty Flies Again for Channel 4, The Nile: Egypt’s Great River With Bettany Hughes […]
UK-based Indielab Accelerator has announced the 2021 cohort for its sixth edition, with 15 production firms joining the scheme. The Accelerator provides early and mid-stage production companies with advice on how to hone their business vision and explore growth opportunities. The 2021 entrants are: Big Little Fish Television, Black Camel Pictures, Blazing Griffin Pictures, ClearStory, […]
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 […]
