In May 2015, Rio Ferdinand’s wife Rebecca lost her life to breast cancer, leaving behind her husband and three children. The documentary that followed captures the footballer’s own grief and worries for his children as he speaks, frankly and movingly, on camera. He meets other families coping with bereavement and loss, and looks at what help is available for parents and children who have lost a loved one.
“I think everyone can relate to that [feeling]” comments the 34-year-old. “When you’re 16 and you think everything’s conspiring against you.”
The award-winning drama garnered a cult following almost overnight earlier this year when it debuted on Channel 4 and shortly followed globally on Netflix.
Filmed over four years, it took viewers on a journey across the oceans like never before. With audiences of over 10 million on BBC One, this series broke new technological ground, breathtaking new science and has lead the debate into the effects on plastic in our seas.
Join us for what promises to be a very interesting and exciting event, rich with clips, as we hear from the producers involved in the making of the series about how the show came together and just how impactful the show has been.
Speakers Include:
“I am so proud of our team, and of our programme which is not even three years old. As our HR department says: in development,” she said as she accepted the award, the first of two she’ll win that evening.
Breaking News is the proving ground of a newsroom. In a breaking news scenario, all the machinery of the newsroom clicks together to tackle what is happening now, and deliver the events of the day to the audience as they arrive.
“Breaking news is our bread and butter,” explains Dylan Dronfield, Senior News Editor at Sky News. “That’s what Sky News was originally billed as doing.”
“Don’t take this as me being rude, but as a Brit who’s proud of and grown up with our amazing content,” he urged broadcasters to experiment “with different platforms and technologies – I really believe there’s an enormous opportunity for original British content.
“We need some positive opportunities for export right now and the [online] audience is there, it’s growing and it’s going to double in the next five years.”
It is a motto she has picked up from Fleabag’s creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
“We wanted to shoot it like a drama and cut it like a comedy,” she explains. “Sometimes it feels like drama is comedy’s big older brother.”
For Hampson and Waller-Bridge, it wasn’t enough to create a ‘typical’ comedy. “We were trying to go for the ambition of drama, but not at the expense of the laughs.”
The awards recognise the huge variety of skills involved in programme production from editing to lighting, and costume design to digital effects.
BBC dramas lead the way in nominations. Taboo, which stars Tom Hardy is up for six awards, whilst Broken and Three Girls received four nominations each.
Three Girls director Philippa Lowthorpe received a nomination in the Director - Drama category alongside Euros Lyn for Damilola, Our Loved Boy and Julian Jarrold for The Witnesses for the Prosecution, all for BBC One.
Watch Lord Puttnam's presentation on the major threats to the media industry, followed by a question and answer session with Ed Vaizey MP.
Click here to read the event report and to watch highlights from the event.
Daniel Lawrence Taylor discusses his new timetravelling sitcom Timewasters
