BBC - Commissioning - History & Business on BBC Four

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History & Business on BBC Four

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Commissioner: Martin Davidson

Overview

BBC4 is the home of wit, warmth, and whimsy, but all underpinned by a strongly articulated point of view. 

What's been working well gallery

We have enjoyed yet another strong year where a combination of archive, testimony, and authored opinion, have yielded wonderful results, including RTS winning series, The Secret Life of the National Grid, the thrid series that began with Motorways and went on to chronicle Airports.

Michael Wood's magisterial, and implacably democractic Story of England proved that the biggest stories in our history come from the smallest places, in this case, the Leicestershire village of Kibworth Harcourt, and belongs lock stock and barrel to the lives of ordinary people, an epic of us, not them.

History & Business - BBC Four - Singles & Series

Even 12/13 is rapidly filling up, but there remain some openings still. The BBC Four audiences demands not subjects, but ideas.  They don’t have to be comprehensive surveys covering entire fields of study -- but they have to collar the viewer with a very clear and compelling sense of what it is the programme -- with or without a presenter -- WANTS TO SAY.  But we offer more than just a soapbox.  We want our projects to take viewers into worlds of curiosity and wonder -- as Lucy Worsley so brilliantly did with the If Walls Could Talk: History of the Home, a series that didnt just narrate the past, it tried it on for size.

Where are the opportunites available? 

Opportunities exist within the WoCC, the independent guarantee and In-house guarantee in 12/13 with more in 13/14 and beyond. 

How should I submit my ideas and who should I pitch to?

All proposals should be submitted via the e-commissioning system to the relevant genre controller or commissioner. Take a look at the Who's Who for the latest history and business commissioning team contacts

Want to know more about the broader BBC Four service strategy?

If you would like to know more about Richard Klein's BBC Four channel strategy, please visit the BBC Four page