Documentaries & Factual Entertainment

Documentaries Introduction

Our purpose is to make documentaries that inform, challenge and entertain, while holding a mirror up to modern Britain.

From the serious (Evacuation, Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime, 24 Hours in Police Custody) to the entertaining (The Dog House, Frankie Boyle’s Farewell to the Monarchy), our programmes speak truth to power, get under the skin of the nation and seek to make sense of the changing world we live in.

Our Documentary favourites

Evacuation

The documentary military thriller revealing the inside story of the perilous British campaign to evacuate Kabul in 2021.

JK looking down into camera holding cue card

Jeremy Kyle Show: Death on Daytime

In 2019, Steve Dymond took his life after appearing on daytime TV's biggest show.

The Dog House

The dog dating show where people and dogs are matched and - hopefully - fall in love.

24 Hours in Police Custody

The documentary series that captures real life drama at its most intense, following police detectives around the clock.

behind view of Boris Johnson facing party goers glasses raised

Partygate

Karaoke, suitcases of wine, ambushing cake... this factual drama tells the story of Covid from inside 10 Downing Street.

See more Documentaries

Factual Entertainment Introduction

Factual Entertainment aims to explore both us and our world in a vivid, entertaining way.

Our primetime shows have scale, and aim to grab viewers with their ambition, whilst engaging them with compelling narratives.

Our department is home to a vast range of programming, including some of the biggest titles in the portfolio such as The Great British Bake Off, Married At First Sight, Gogglebox, and Celebrity Hunted. Our incredibly varied output ranges from highly constructed formats to social experiments to observational documentary.

What unites pretty much everything we make, is character-driven story-telling, and a desire to reach a broad audience.

If you have a new idea that you think might work for us, we would love to hear from you. You can email any of the team below, direct - and we will reply promptly. We will happily look at anything from a fully-worked up treatment, to a one-line email.

Our Factual Entertainment favourites

Gogglebox

What do Britain's sharpest armchair critics think of our biggest and best TV programmes?

Married at First Sight UK

The bold social experiment where single people, matched by experts, marry total strangers.

The Great British Bake Off

Britain's best amateur bakers compete in the iconic white tent.

Gregg Wallace: The British Miracle Meat

With food prices soaring, Gregg Wallace investigates a controversial new lab-grown meat product.

What are we looking for?

Following a restructure of the Documentaries and Factual Entertainment department we are reviewing our commissioning strategy and will be publishing detailed guidance on our commissioning priorities here soon.