Sky adds a host of new documentaries to its slate for the rest of 2024Thursday 13 June 2024Sky today announced an exciting line up of four Original films and series coming to Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW later this year.
The Frost Tapes (w/t) charts almost half a century of dizzying social, political, and cultural change through the eyes of the one man who had a front-row seat to it all: Sir David Frost. A Sky Studios production, co-produced with Paradine Productions and White Horse Pictures, the series is made in collaboration with Frost's son, Wilfred, with each episode anchored around Frost's interviews with one key personality, providing a springboard into deeply relevant subject matters.
Drawing from Frosts archive of more than 10,000 era-defining interviews, many of which have been lost for a generation, the documentary takes viewers on an immersive journey through the most important moments of the late 20th century via Frosts personal and revealing conversations with the protagonists, with striking parallels to today.
This archive footage is supplemented by interviews with an extraordinary list of new contributors including Michael Sheen, Liam Neeson, Joanna Lumley, Khalilah Ali and Tony Blair who help uncover Frost's incredible life and career as one of the nation's most renowned television hosts and journalists.
Speaking about the commission Wilfred Frost, comments: For the last decade since Dad died I have focused on accumulating more rights to his interviews and recovering and restoring lost footage, waiting for the right moment and partner to showcase it. That moment is now, and in Sky Studios and White Horse Pictures I feel blessed to have better partners than I could ever have dreamt of. While this series is based on Dads archive of over 10,000 interviews - many of which have not been seen for decades - it is not a typical archive show. Every conversation is carefully selected to be staggeringly relevant today, and told by blockbuster names from The Beatles to Jane Fonda to Muhammad Ali to Richard Nixon. Working on this series has been a privilege - not just as Dads immensely proud son, but also as a journalist - Dad had a front row seat as the most important moments of the 20th century unfolded, and its time we share again the seminal conversations he had with the protagonists. I hope weve done Dads legacy justice.
The Body Next Door, produced by RAW, is a three-part documentary series that delves into one of the most bizarre and shocking true crime stories of the past decade. In November 2015, an astonishing and macabre discovery thrusts Beddau, a sleepy former mining village in the heart of the Welsh Valleys, into the spotlight. What begins as a seemingly harmless prank involving a medical skeleton found in the secure garden of a quiet residential block takes a horrifying turn when it is revealed that the skeleton is, in fact, a dead body wrapped in over 40 layers of plastic. What emerges is a gripping murder mystery intertwined with a dramatic family saga, making headline news and sending shockwaves from the heart of the Welsh Valleys to the suburbs of New Zealand.
A Sandpaper Films production, Doom Scroll: Andrew Tate & The Dark Side of the Internet, goes beyond the headlines to explore how and why someone with such toxic views was able to take hold of so many millions of young followers, exploring how Tate is a terrifying symptom of the increasingly fractured world in which we live, propelled to infamy by the social media platforms beneath our fingertips.
The film highlights the dark influence of social media platforms and how their carefully crafted algorithms have shaped our world today. It speaks with his critics and those who know him, along with some of the architects of the social media algorithms which came to allow extreme, hateful and misogynistic content to proliferate - all in the pursuit of profit for the platforms.
Adam Hills: Foot Fault, produced by Noah Media Group, takes viewers behind the scenes of a global campaign around the growing form of the sport - Para-Standing Tennis - and its potential as a future Grand Slam and Paralympic event. Wheelchair Tennis is now a fixture at the Grand Slams and in the Paralympics, but for players with a range of disabilities like Adam's, who can't or don't want to play their favourite sport in a wheelchair, there's still no competitive representation in the elite-level tournaments. Adam visits some of the most famous tennis locations in the world, meeting and playing with former Grand Slam winners, as well as uncovering the barriers faced by aspiring tennis players with disabilities who want to be included by their sport at the highest level.
Adam Hills commented: "At the moment the world of tennis feels like a building with an entrance for able-bodied people and an entrance for people in wheelchairs, but nothing for anyone in between. Ive spent years searching for a way to play tennis against people like me, and at the age of 53 time may be running out. I want to play Para-Standing Tennis while I can, but I also want to make sure theres a way for kids with disabilities to be able to play the sport they love, on a level playing field. Ive got a pretty loud microphone, and I intend to use it."
Poppy Dixon, Sky's Director of Documentaries and Factual, comments: These new commissions showcase the breadth of content we have on the Sky Documentaries channel. With exclusive archive, unprecedented access and a deep dive into the untold, we feel so privileged to be working with some of the best creatives in the industry, to bring these important and compelling stories to life.
Notes to Editors
The Frost Tapes (w/t)
6 x 45 (released as 2 x miniseries)
Pulling from an archive of over 10,000 interviews recorded over more than 50 years, The Frost Tapes (w/t)
