BBC Documentaries Boss: “Audiences Trust The Man In The Street More Than They Trust Institutions” – MIP London

deadline.com:

“Audiences trust the man in the street more than they trust institutions.” That was the societal read delivered today at MIP London by Clare Sillery, who runs documentary commissioning for the BBC, greenlighting hundreds of hours of factual shows per year.

Sillery made the declaration as she spoke about how the BBC no longer wants “biographies,” “summaries” or “explainers” when it comes to the documentaries it commissions. “In a digital-first world they are not so valuable because who is the voice telling you the story?,” said Sillery at the inaugural MIP London. “Audiences trust the man in the street more than they trust institutions and so those kinds of testimony-led films made by filmmakers are extremely valuable in this climate.” Sillery’s exemplar was Once Upon a Time In Northern Ireland, the double-BAFTA-winning James Bluemel-made doc about The Troubles which featured testimony from dozens of Irish people who lived through those decades.

This show is now taught in Northern Irish schools, according to Sillery, while Bluemel is making Once Upon a Time In Space for the BBC.

Sillery’s remark around distrust in institutions conjures memories of ex-UK Home Secretary Michael Gove’s notorious line about the UK having “had enough of experts” during the period the nation was leaving the European Union.