C4.qxp_Layout 7 23/02/2021 13:46 Page 1
TV & FILM
4 all of Bristol
Channel 4 got more change than they bargained for when they moved to Bristol in the year a pandemic struck. Nevertheless it’s brought out the best in the city, says the channel’s factual commissioner and head of the Bristol hub
Filming for Blak Wave’s Pickney underway in Bristol
A
round a year ago, Channel 4 had just moved a huge swathe of its output – specialist factual, factual entertainment, features and formats, documentary, drama and daytime – to Bristol to help ensure a less London-centric future of tellymaking and build on this city’s thriving TV production sector. The year of the pivot for many people, 2020 was no different for the broadcaster, which faced a difficult financial period due to the pandemic but managed to end on a high with a healthy financial surplus. The pathway to its digital future, recently set out via a new five-year strategy, includes new targets to double viewing on digital platform All4 by 2025, and a global format fund to invest in UKproduced formats with worldwide potential. Future4 aims to increase content streaming with new revenues underpinning its reach and selfsufficiency. The idea is to ensure C4 can continue delivering distinctive content at scale, meet its public service remit in a more competitive digital viewing environment and create change through entertainment that challenges, and represents unheard voices. Founder of Marble Films, and now head of Bristol’s C4 hub, Sacha Mirzoeff told us more. TBM: How’s the first year been? How did the pandemic reshape it? Sacha: I was working as head of an independent TV company before this year, having lived in Bristol for over 20 years, then Channel 4 came to Bristol and got in contact. I thought them being here was such an exciting proposition – I’ve always believed in what they do and stand for, the way they take risks as a channel and give a voice to underrepresented people. I thought I should give it a go, and spent so long thinking through every eventuality about what the year might bring… Life is full of surprises and it’s been some year – I’ve spent three quarters of it in my own house! But it’s been brilliant; we’ve been able to continue with production in the vast majority of cases and had some outstanding films go out. It’s somehow brought out the best of British and the best of Bristol. 24 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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MARCH 2021
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No 196
What’s coming up? The Doghouse is a lovely, warm series made in Bristol by Five Mile Films about rehoming stray dogs but it’s really about the people who come and collect those dogs and what’s going on for them. We do feel people need the equivalent of a hot chocolate to take them away from the misery of the world at the moment. We have First Dates now being made out of Bristol – Twenty Twenty, the company that makes it, has moved fully down here, training up a load of editors to work on the show. That’s as important to us as the actual programmes, that we’re changing workforce on the ground here, and who’s working in the TV industry; bringing a wider range of voices from different communities. Have there been any pandemic positives? With Zoom, you can be a company in North Wales and have exactly the same kind of access to Channel 4 as a company in Soho; there’s a uniformity of access. The idea of the hubs was to cut down on all the travelling to London that independents were doing; for what was often a half-hour meeting with a pressurised commissioner. But our workforce is made up of freelancers – the creative blood of this industry, the people who make productions sing – and the past year has been extraordinarily challenging for them. What’s been your most fulfilling or feel-good factual commission? The Year That Changed Love made by Bristol company Keo West. Positive, uplifting stories about love in lockdown; so sweet. Coming up in spring we’ve got a new craft show called Good With Wood made from Bristol by Plimsoll Productions. It’s really fun – the contributors produce extraordinary bits of work in a matter of days.
