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Osama Bin Laden: The Inside Story

Type: Factual
Length: 3 x 60 minutes
Producer: Voltage TV
Broadcaster: Channel 4 (UK); Arte (France); SBS (Australia, pre-sale)

‘What this series does is tell for the first time the whole story of who Bin Laden was, where he came from and how he was radicalised’

Originally commissioned to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Voltage TV’s three-part Osama Bin Laden – The Inside Story is aiming for a life beyond the month of September, as it digs deep into the life of the founder of jihadist terror organisation Al-Qaeda.

“What this series does is tell for the first time the whole story of who Bin Laden was, where he came from and how he was radicalised,” says Ben Barrett, joint managing director of factual distributor Drive.

Partially shot in Afghanistan only months before the Taliban’s recent seizure of control of the country, the film paints a picture of a shy young boy from a wealthy family who lost his father relatively young and slowly became radicalised and entrenched in ideology.

The documentary’s contributors include childhood friend Khaled Batarfi, who recalls a young lad with a penchant for American TV changed irreversibly by war, and Mujahideen commander Sayed Rahman Wahidyar, who talks of an incompetent fighter whom he had to scold at times, but who slowly learned battlefield skills. These fighting skills culminated in the Battle of Jaji – which was the start of the myth of Bin Laden as a war hero.

The documentary also charts Bin Laden’s return to Saudi Arabia, where he becomes an embarrassing dissident during the Gulf War, as well as his journey to Sudan, where he opens up Al-Qaeda training camps while simultaneously running a sunflower business.

The film also boasts unique, never-before-broadcast audio recordings of Bin Laden, recovered from his compound.

A Channel 4 and Arte co-pro, it was broadcast on the former in early September, although Arte, which ordered a two-part cut-down version of the film, isn’t planning on running it for a while yet, says Barrett. He adds that there is no definitive home for the doc and it could sit on broadcast as well as on-demand services.

The documentary has also pre-sold to SBS in Australia and Drive is currently having conversations with six US-based channels.

Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany

Type: Factual
Length: 2 x 60-minutes
Producer: Bright Button Productions
Broadcaster: BBC4 (UK)

The 75th anniversary of VE Day led to a wash of World War Two programming in the industry in early 2020, but Barratt is quick to point out Drive “did not peg Lost Home Movies of Nazi Germany as an anniversary show”. As a strong exponent of WW2 programming, Drive is always on the lookout for different takes on a well-trodden era for history documentaries and Bright Button’s production is being sold as a “pre-World War Two show”, he says.

The two-part doc, which won a 2020 RTS Southern award for best factual series, explores the dawn of the Third Reich through the home videos of regular Germans, lifting the lid on what life was like for those living in and under Hitler’s Swastika.

“There’s always a risk that people tire of a certain type of show, but those elements of difference – the incredible personal films – have longevity,” Barrett says. “It was extraordinary footage that felt part of the story we’d never seen before.”

Barrett says its broadcast on the BBC is encouraging a “mass market” free-to-air channel promotion before taking it to “obvious specialist” networks.

“Early in lockdown this wasn’t the type of content people would want,” says Hurst. “But we’ve always known that with this kind of colourised World War Two archive, there will always be a demand, you just have to hold your nerve and wait for the cycle of programming to come round.

“There’s a lot of it, but not of this calibre. The last few weeks, suddenly the offers have come through for it.”

Drive is also in communication with Bright Button as other ways to perhaps “expand that brand out”, either another period of history or the same era but in other countries.

“The producers are still looking for other home videos,” Barrett says. “We’ll always fee back and give ideas to the producers, but that does need to come from them.”

Cash In The Spare Room

Type: Factual-entertainment; Format
Length: 10 x 60-minutes
Producer: Friel Kean Films
Broadcaster: HGTV, Discovery (UK)

This series is a product of Drive’s recent strategy of broadening out its pipeline from its specialist factual roots. Part of a first-look arrangement the firm has with Scottish indie Friel Kean Films, the recent Discovery commission sees host Sarah Moore and Max McMurdo (George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces) help turn people’s unused space into luxury and lucrative holiday lets.

Moore and McMurdo aim to inform viewers on how to accomplish this, working on a range of spaces from garages to spare rooms, lofts to annexes, and caravans to outbuildings.

“As we launched the distribution business, it was always with a view that we would represent broad church of factual,” says Hurst. “There was a desire to build out the fact-ent, formats and lifestyle parts of the catalogue.”

Building off the other Moore-fronted title on its slate, Money For Nothing, Hurst says the presenter’s multi-faceted skills and charisma could lead to a franchise of shows in the property space.

Drive, which has world format and finished tape rights, is exploring adaptation opportunities in the US, outside of the Discovery wheelhouse.

“A range of channels in the US are opening to this space, even SVoDs like Netflix are definitely wanting to do more formattable shows now,” Hurst says.

Elsewhere, English-speaking regions are ripe for the finished tape, with “opportunities in Scandinavia and France also a possibility. Asia and the Middle East are “a bit more challenging” for this show, but the lifestyle demand is spiking, and Drive is aiming to capitalise.