London Screenings 2022

Cops On the Rock

Type: Factual
Length: 10 x 60 minutes
Producer: Rare TV
Broadcaster: UKTV (UK)

As part of a bolstering of its crime slate, Blue Ant International invested in Rare TV’s Cops On The Rock back in 2019, before filming had even started.

The 10-part series is Rare’s debut commission for UKTV’s comedy and entertainment channel Dave and signals a departure from the network’s usual focus on scripted and unscripted comedy programming by highlighting the extraordinary work of the police and customs force on the island of Gibraltar, the British territory home to approximately 30,000 residents.

Each hour-long episode provides extensive access to a police unit that bridges the gateway to the Mediterranean, with Morocco just nine miles across the sea. The result is a breadth of attention-grabbing crime stories ranging from terrorist threats and international smugglers to low-level drug dealers.

These subjects were a major draw for Blue Ant director of international sales and acquisitions Fleur Wheatley, who expects the series’ crime topics to “drive ratings and subscribers”. She adds: “It’s bingeable, and for us that is a massive tick.”

While the police are British, Wheatley sees both the crimes tackled in the series and the fact that Gibraltar acts as a hub for a variety of nationalities as an attraction for international buyers and audiences. Cops On The Rock covers a spectrum of crimes, from high-end to low-end, and presents a range of different cultures and perspectives, setting it apart from its UK ob-doc counterparts.

“It’s not just your regular bobby” says Wheatley. “It’s all of the different elements of what is a unique police force that you wouldn’t know about unless you had this access.”

Pre-sales had already been secured across numerous European territories before the show aired on Dave in February, drawing average audiences of 150,000 in its slot, comfortably above the 100,000 benchmark. The distributor is currently in negotiations with a number of other territories.

Although Wheatley acknowledges that had the series been around a few years earlier, its 10-episode count could have made for “a difficult play” for the streamers, Blue Ant has received interest from SVoDs, as well as other niche platforms.

Wheatley partly credits this to the fact that each episode is self-contained, but has a host of recurring, charismatic characters that viewers can “fall in love with”, combined with fast pacing that speaks to both a linear and an SVoD market.

With a slate that includes Mountain Vets and Digging For Britain, Rare TV offered an opportunity for Blue Ant to delve into true crime and fact-ent in a way that “feels specialist”.

Having previously distributed programming with more specialist factual tendencies, such as World’s Most Scenic River Journeys and Secrets Of The Imperial War Museum, Cops On The Rock adds to a growing fact-ent slate.

“Rare TV takes very interesting topics and looks at them in a very intelligent way,” says Wheatley. “Yes, it’s true crime, but it feels premium factual because of the nature of the programming and the way that Rare sells things.”

Hot Picks

9/11 Kids

Type: Factual
Length: 1 x 78-minutes; 1 x 88-minutes
Producer: Saloon Media
Broadcaster: CBC (Canada)

Ahead of the 20th year since the September 11th terrorist attacks, there is likely to be considerable numbers of anniversary documentaries in the international marketplace. But as Ludo Dufour, senior vice-president of international, co-productions and sales at Blue Ant international, is quick to point out, 9/11 Kids demonstrably doesn’t solely fit that category.

The feature-length film, produced by in-house firm Saloon Media, stems from one of the iconic photos from the disaster. During a press event in a second-grade classroom at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card whispers to President George W. Bush that a second plane has hit the second tower of the World Trade Centre in New York. The image of the president looking glassy-eyed and stony faced, in front of a classroom of six- and seven-year-olds, is surreal and widely recognised.

Rather than focusing on the stories of the authorities and those at the attack sites across the US, however, 9/11 Kids tracks down the schoolchildren from that classroom, now in their mid-20s, for an exploration of post-9/11 America through their lives.

Dufour says its historical timeliness and significance has been amplified by the Black Lives Matter movement and other social uprisings sparked by the murder of George Floyd.

Elsewhere it explores wealth disparity, racial prejudice and its impact on the criminal justice system, gun crime, the role of drugs and the importance of education.

“Looking at these 16 students with angelic faces, being able to see how much their lives have been moulded by this very day, to see how it impacted them, is a fascinating way to look at the country,” he says.

The forthcoming US election further dissociates the doc from an anniversary piece, Dufour notes, and global interest on the race, plus perennially important social themes are likely to entice international buyers.

“A feature documentary is potentially more likely to end up with a streamer, but we need to make sure we get the best deal for the film and make sure that most people can watch it,” he says of the sales strategy. “We’re open to any option, but a global approach from a streamer followed by specific windows in other territories would definitely be an attractive business model.”

Stormborn

Type: Factual
Length: 3 x 60-minutes
Producer: Maramedia
Broadcaster: Love Nature, Smithsonian Channel (US/Canada), ARTE (France) BBC Scotland (UK)

This series from Glasgow indie Maramedia fits comfortably in Blue Ant’s wheelhouse. The drama-tinged factual three-parter, showcases some of the world’s most hardy animal characters over one dramatic breeding year in Norway, Scotland and Iceland. Following arctic foxes, otters and reindeer and their survival in the remote northern edges of the Atlantic Ocean, audiences are given insight into animal behaviour that is new even to scientists, let alone TV screens.

“Maramedia is the big reason for why we embarked on this project,” Dufour says. “They have a unique storytelling sensibility and have really struck the right balance between natural history and drama.”

The myriad broadcast partners add “gravitas” to the series, and open up buyer possibilities while strengthening Blue Ant’s channel relationships.

“In distribution, when you pitch a finished series and explain the partners, clients’ eyes light up,” Dufour notes. “They know these broadcasters would not come on-board if the production quality wasn’t the best in the business.”

Scandinavia’s PSBs are among the initial targets, given their desire to have “a blue-chip natural history experience with factual takeaways for the audience”, Dufour explains. He is also anticipating interest from more general entertainment channels, driven by dramatic overtones and the presence of Hollywood star Ewan McGregor as narrator.

“People who aren’t natural history fans, might be drawn in by his dramatic storytelling style,” he adds. “Many episodes are mosaics of environments and ecosystems. It makes it more versatile to more education- and entertainment-led broadcasters.”