“Audiences trust the man in the street more than they trust institutions.”
That was the societal read delivered today at MIP London by Clare Sillery, who runs documentary commissioning for the BBC, greenlighting hundreds of hours of factual shows per year.
Sillery made the declaration as she spoke about how the BBC no longer wants “biographies,” “summaries” or “explainers” when it comes to the documentaries it commissions.
“In a digital-first world they are not so valuable because who is the voice telling you the story?,” said Sillery at the inaugural MIP London. “Audiences trust the man in the street more than they trust institutions and so those kinds of testimony-led films made by filmmakers are extremely valuable in this climate.”
Sillery’s exemplar was Once Upon a Time In Northern Ireland, the double-BAFTA-winning James Bluemel-made doc about The Troubles which featured testimony from dozens of Irish people who lived through those decades. This show is now taught in Northern Irish schools, according to Sillery, while Bluemel is making Once Upon a Time In Space for the BBC.
Sillery’s remark around distrust in institutions conjures memories of ex-UK Home Secretary Michael Gove’s notorious line about the UK having “had enough of experts” during the period the nation was leaving the European Union. Gove’s full quote took aim at “organizations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.”
Sillery went on to say the “most underused tool at the moment” in documentaries is the ability to “bear witness” to events happening in the present day, rather than focusing on the past, which she said is favored by the streamers.
Feeding into her desire to be current and immersive, Sillery said the BBC has done away with the traditional notion of having “presenters” on its docs.
“We don’t have presenters on my slate at all,” she said. “Anything that is talent-led, [the presenters] are immersed in it.” She flagged Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, in which the ex-Top Gear host trains a cricket team of young people from underprivileged backgrounds.
“When he started that, Freddie thought it would be quite easy and it turned into an absolute nightmare but was brilliant,” said Sillery. “He was never going to let go of it and he was immersed in it.”
MIP London runs till Thursday, concurrent with the London TV Screenings. David Beckham and Netflix’s Bela Bajaria are speaking tomorrow.
