Docs on ONE play a key role in building both the distinctiveness and the broad appeal of ONE's factual output.
All titles should have broad mainstream appeal, and have the ability to both entertain and inform along the way.
They should also be rooted in the present tense and the national mindset, telling the strong human stories behind the big national headlines and dominant social issues.
Though they should have an accessible entry point for a broad audience, at the same time, they shouldn't be afraid of tackling important issues or of innovating with modern new shapes and concepts.
Budget Information
- In 10/11 there are opportunities for this programming within the In-House guarantee, the WoCC and the Independent quota. Please note that a number of hours have a Nations and/or Regional quota attached.
- In 11/12 there are opportunities for this programming within the In-House guarantee, the WoCC and the Independent quota.
High impact original events, possibly stripped across the week
Lambing Live was unique, entertaining and engaging. What might One's version of this title look like?
These ideas should feel like an event, creating impact both on the schedule and with a strong multiplatform element.
We're looking for big, bold risky ideas. How else can we innovate beyond presenter/subject pairings - what broader concepts would fit the channel?
Provocative, topical, issue-based formats
Issue-driven formats about modern Britain. The Day the Immigrants Left and Famous, Rich and Homeless engaged a big, broad audience with difficult subject matter by using a compelling and entertaining format to bring the issues to life.
What other formats can force the nation to make up their own minds about our biggest national issues?
Purposeful, presenter led series
We're actively looking for new faces and for format innovation in this area, e.g. Britain from Above.
These titles must give us something beyond travelogue, delivering personal, social or issue-based revelations.
Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones, Joanna Lumley in the Land of the Northern Lights and the best episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? do exactly that.
Attention-grabbing singles at 2235 (and 2100)
We're continuing to look to commission a blend of popular singles and more reputational pieces at 2235, including further mini seasons like the recent Being Mum season. Some of these titles, like the Bafta-award winning Wounded, might well show at 2100 if they're really strong.
All singles should grab the attention with compelling stories and central characters, and engage the audience from start to finish with modern stories and discoveries that feel present tense.
All ideas, whether popular or reputational need a clear sense of purpose. Eye-catching titles are also key.
There are two ways in which we are looking to achieve this:
Reputational docs about real lives
Compelling documentaries about real people and real lives are key to building the reputation of documentary in the UK mainstream. Recent titles like Between Life and Death, When a Mother's Love Is Not Enough and Jobless have had a huge impact on the audience in different ways.
What are the extraordinary, important and emotional stories behind the headlines about individuals or groups of individuals?
Eye catching, accessible, popular docs for a broad audience
Whether it's through incredible character-driven stories - like Hannah: The Girl Who Said No To a New Heart and The Man Who Can't Stop Hiccupping - or around absolute topicality - as with Repossessed, Neighbourhood Watched, and How Woolies Became Wellies - these titles should have the potential to cut through and attract a big audience at this time of the evening.
How else can we make viewers sit up and take notice without resorting to voyeurism or freakishness?
 Download the full list of BBC ONE requirements [PDF, 17 Kb]
Documentaries on BBC Two
Our goal on BBC TWO is to be recognised as the home of documentaries. This means that diversity and range of ideas, voices and tone are prerequisite across the slate.
Documentaries should make BBC TWO feel relevant and modern - populating the channel with compelling real lives, interests and concerns.
To manage our commissions, we split the slate into entertaining and immersive ideas that explore better ways to live your life on one side, and modern provocative, challenging and contemporary subjects on the other.
In particular, we're looking to strengthen our reputational docs about modern life. These one offs and series should simultaneously inspire and challenge viewers to reappraise their view on modern life and society.
Budget information
- In 11/12 there are opportunities for this programming within the In-House guarantee, the WoCC and the Independent quota.
Events and formatted docs series for a broad audience
Shape
Series, flexible in terms of shape - from 4×60' to an event stripped over a week.
Requirement
Successful formatted docs and events on TWO are redemptive, inspiring and purposeful, exploring better ways to live our lives. They should have something important to say or explore at their heart and the experience has to feel real and meaningful for the people involved.
We were delighted with narrative-driven series like Victorian Farm and The Choir that engaged big audiences with high quality, distinctive output.
We're also very excited about formats with an event feel, like Lambing Live.
Both shapes provide drama that keeps audiences coming back episode after episode.
In particular, we're looking for new territories beyond singing, the countryside and food that have a real sense of immediacy and that might be tougher and/or more contemporary.
Experiential, presenter led series
Shape
One and two-parters.
Requirement
Well-known faces with a story to tell, a personal passion or experience to share continue to draw audiences. However, this is an established form now, so uniqueness of talent, subject or preferably both, is key - eg. Terry Pratchett: Living with Alzheimers. In addition, the upcoming title on Care with Neil Morrissey and Gareth Malone's Dangerous School for Boys are great examples.
Immersive, presenter led travel and adventure
Shape
Series, flexible as to shape.
Requirement
Experiential and not thesis-driven, Louis Theroux, Monty Halls, Kate Humble, Bruce Parry and recently Stephen Fry have all found very different ways of exploring a world that, distant or not, feels relevant to our own lives.
Who else can take us on journeys of discovery or lead us into new subjects? Last Chance to See was a distinctive take on this mini genre; how else can we innovate here?
Kate Humble's journey along the ancient Frankincense Trail was a tremendous success and we're particularly interested in more female and more diverse talent to add to the mix.
Modern, relevant and reputational series
Shape
Series and one-offs, of varied shapes.
Requirement
As the home of docs our output on TWO needs more ideas that push the boundaries in order to bring home piercingly relevant subject matter. Though ideas on TWO don't need to be driven by current headlines, they should illuminate and question key touchstones of modern life, making connections between personal experience and the modern world.
We want more high-end modern documentary of all forms which combine innovative ideas with great storytelling and ob-docs driven by access to modern institutions with a clear sense of purpose and proposition.
These ideas need a sense of immediacy and the ability to appeal to younger, more diverse audiences. Recently, Welcome to Lagos, Inside John Lewis, and Great Ormond Street have all played well in this space.
Striking single docs
Wonderland is the home for witty and relevant documentary on TWO and is now open to singles ideas from independents. Wonderland docs bring original, unexpected perspectives to everyday life, often with humour and always with ultimate relevance to the viewer - The Alzheimer's Choir and I Won University Challenge were the most successful episodes of the last run. Nick Mirsky is the Commissioning Editor.
Outside Wonderland, there is room for high impact singles driven by stories and ideas that generate penetrative new insights about modern life.
Gripping storytelling is absolutely crucial. The Fallen and Why did you Kill my Dad? are great examples of past successes in this area.
In both cases, it's important to realise that one-offs are easily missed in the modern TV landscape, so we need to help viewers find our work and engage with it quickly - so subject matter and title must feel relevant and intriguing.
In some cases, these will TX as part of a season.
Drama docs
Key to bringing broad audiences to factual content, drama docs are a unique flavour on TWO. Covering iconic people (like Best: His Mother's Son or Maxwell) and extraordinary stories (like The Thieving Headmistress or The Antiques Rogue Show).
Which narratives simply demand to be brought to life and provide the opportunity to engage broad audiences?
Download the full list of BBC TWO requirements [PDF, 20 Kb]
Documentaries on BBC Three
Docs on THREE engage with subjects and issues that matter to a young but broad BBC3 audience.
Think both about the most important issues for a young adult audience (16-24 at its core and 16-34 at its broadest), and about their perspective on the issues that affect us all.
On one side of our slate, the stories are compelling and often intimate - the extraordinary personal stories of ordinary people.
On the other, this is THE place for docs to be entertaining, bold and upfront in style and tone to break through to future docs audiences.
Whatever the idea, a punchy title that will capture the attention on the EPG is crucial.
Budget Information
- Opportunities in 2010/11 remain in the In house guarantee, the Independent quota and the WoCC. Please note that a number of hours have a Nations and/or a Regional quota attached.
- In 11/12 there are opportunities for this programming across all supply bases.
Presenter led popular docs
Shape
Series and one-offs.
Requirement
Celebrity journeys
We're still looking for fresh celebrity faces with warm and authentic stories that we can experience with them. The subject matter should touch the lives of a broad young audience. Nicola Roberts: The Truth about Tanning, Kirsten's Topless Ambition and Claire Richards: My Big Fat Wedding have all delivered for the channel in terms of audience.
We are also interested in how ideas can take established talent out of the comfort zone or show a surprising passion - like Eddie Izzard: Marathon Man.
One-offs will generally be commissioned as part of a season.
Documentary singles and series
Shape
Singles as part of seasons and series.
Requirement
THREE continually succeeds with honest, redemptive stories about ordinary individuals living extraordinary young adult lives. Small Teen, Big World, Baby Beauty Queens and The Autistic Me are great examples of this. Think about two things:
- What are the urgent issues for young people?
- Have we found a fresh way of approaching them and a unique personal story?
These stories can be also grouped as part of series - Underage and Pregnant did fantastically well on the channel with beautifully told, self-contained half-hours grouped around a heartland theme for this audience. My Big Decision also found lightly formatted ways to heighten the journeys of the contributors and to cover a range of heartland subjects for this audience within a series.
They might be driven by the relevant, grittier issues and institutions, or by a more aspirational universe that has dramas of its own.
One-offs will generally be commissioned as part of a season. Seasons work really well for the channel. Good examples are the Adult Season and Dangerous Pleasures. We are looking for season ideas that feel fresh, relevant and contemporary. The key question is: why make this programme now?
We are looking for documentary series that have distinctive form and look. As well as securing strong access we are interested in ideas that challenge the normal parameters of documentary. On the documentary slate we also commission specialist factual, science and cross genre programmes.
Fresh
BBC THREE is committed to new talent on-screen and off, and the Fresh initiative commissions six 60-minute films a year from the next generation of documentary film makers. We want Directors to have a distinctive and clear vision for their documentary.
Original formats
Shape
This kind of programming is driven by originality, so we're flexible here.
Requirement
Provocative formats and social experiments are big brand building properties for the channel.
In some of our docs we are looking for mischief, humour, and challenge - with plenty of opportunity for ob-docs content. This audience gets lots of entertainment from people-watching but the best ideas also challenge the way young people live their lives. Think about the central question at the core of any proposition. What is the purpose? If the purpose is clear, ideas can be thought-provoking.
Download the full list of BBC THREE requirements [PDF, 18 Kb]
Documentaries on BBC Four
Docs on FOUR engage and entertaining curious minds with big ideas and debate - covering a really broad range of distinctive and mainstream subject matter from nostalgia to urgency but always with something to say: from tweed to Japan, from farming and grandparents to knife crime.
Docs output on FOUR is characterised by tackling mainstream subjects and ideas in an imaginative, often counter intuitive way that offers a different perspective on a subject.
We're particularly looking for directors and presenters with a strong voice and a unique approach.
Cut through and impact in a digital landscape are absolutely vital to the channel, and we're looking to build in this area with a variety of eye-catching shapes and approaches. Seasons will remain a crucial part of building impact but how else can we bring people to the channel?
Budget Information
- In 11/12 there are opportunities in the In-House Guarantee, the Independent Quota and the WoCC.
3 or 4 × 60' series, and one-offs as part of seasons
Shape
We're looking for 3 or 4 × 60 series, and one-offs as part of seasons.
Requirement
Contemporary society
Unique access to little explored British institutions that shed a light on the way we live now. Previous examples have included Tweed, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Savile Row and Museums. Unique directorial voices in this established area on the channel have always been important and we need to keep things fresh.
We're also keen to consider courageous takes on radical, dangerous modern subjects that others dare not touch, such as Morgan Matthews' upcoming film Seventeen, to make BBC4 feel alive and in touch.
Bold international ideas
This is also the only mainstream channel to regularly tell international stories regularly such as the recent African Railway, Zimbabwe's Forgotten Children, Indian Hill Railways, Murder on the Lake or Syrian School. As well as their exploration of another culture, titles like Fish! were rewarded by the audience for being modern and distinctive. Where next for international docs outside Storyville strand? (Storyville commissioning editor is Nick Fraser.)
Contemporary history with dynamic propositions
Contemporary history with dynamic propositions are vital to FOUR. They should use unique access to archive to reinterpret the recent past, always with a strong proposition/opinion/debate at its heart. Mud, Sweat and Tractors delivered a strong thesis about the effects of mechanisation both on farming, on those trying to make a livelihood from it and on the way we live today. Mental: A History of the Madhouse also worked well in this territory.
Well-known faces with unexpected passions
Well-known faces who can inspire and entertain with their warm, unexpected passions are great crowd-pleasers, as Timothy Spall did with Somewhere at Sea, Sean Langan did with African Railway, Paul Merton did with Hitchcock and Ian Hislop did with trains. Something about the combination of talent and subject should surprise the viewer, to help the title stand out on the EPG.
Download the full list of BBC FOUR requirements [PDF, 22 Kb]
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