Factual Q&A: Andrew O'Connell, Channel 5

What is your target demographic?

It’s broad ranging. Extraordinary People appeals to quite a female audience. History programmes tend to be ABC1, upmarket and male and they do good business for us.

What do you want and what slots are available?

In history programming, our audience appreciates World War II, the Egyptians and the Tudors. For us, it’s about finding new ways to go over well-trodden ground. We had our Extraordinary People around the World Cup and it was very successful, getting up to 1.5 million viewers. We’re looking to commission another six to air in March next year.

What is in production?

Recent commissions include White Van Man (pictured, above right), Secret Blitz - a documentary about Britain’s own Schindler who saved 10,000 Jews - and a doc about the Virgin Queen’s affair with Robert Dudley using a recently discovered coroner’s report. We’ve also got The Battle of Arnhem: Tour of Duty, which focuses on teenagers of the PlayStation era who are on the fringes of being thrown out of school. This two-parter shows the kids in training and then jumping out of the planes used in the Battle of Arnhem. Some of the battle’s survivors shared their experiences with the teens and made them engage with history. It’s an immersive journey. There’s also five-part series Patrolling The Waves that we’re doing with the navy to track down drug-runners in the Caribbean.

What has worked recently and what hasn’t?

For Extraordinary People, what has traditionally worked is the shock factor. It’s an alternative to what’s on the other channels. They were quite extreme and we’re moving away from the shock factor to make them an aspirational journey with a resolution if possible, allowing viewers to see how people get on with normal life. It’s about trying to help people understand the disease.

The heart of the story is their personal story. You want empathy and not just shock for the sake of shock. The Human Camera was about the man who draws London. It was an unbelievable story of an autistic man with a serious talent for drawing buildings.

Any shows going into new areas?

I’d like to find more ways of investigating engineering and massive structures. It works well for us. I’d like to find a way to move that on and take ownership for it. A lot of these docs about massive structures are co-productions and they are good international ideas. We want to do more of these shows on our own. It would be a departure for us. Historically, Extraordinary People and Revealed are often co-pros.

How many commissioning deals are there a year?

Over the course of 2009 in factual and factual entertainment, we commissioned around 489 hours. This includes The Wright Stuff, the Revealed and Extraordinary People strands, history and factual entertainment. Straight docs account for about 150 hours. This year so far we have commissioned 415 hours.

What are your content sources?

A lot of our ideas come from smaller indies. We don’t do volume deals. It’s all about ideas. Acquisitions such as Ice Road Truckers and Heavy Haulers account for about 20% of our entire output. We look at acquisitions if we have holes in our schedule that we can’t fill with commissions. We go out looking for them. We have relationships with buyers and channels such as Nat Geo History, Discovery and Animal Planet.

What are your key commissioning times and how do people pitch?

It’s a rolling programme of commissions. Pitch by email.