| MUMBAI:
Motherhood, fatherhood, growing up and children's education are four aspects of
modern family life which impact on most people living in Britain today.
UK pubcaster the
BBC will put them under the spotlight in a host of new documentary commissions
announced by BBC Commissioning editor for documentaries Charlotte Moore.
Moore
said, "These are just a few of the documentaries on the BBC next year. They
focus on aspects of modern life that reflect the reality in Britain today, and
exemplify each of the four TV channels' commitment to engaging our audience in
issues that are of relevance and interest to their lives." Also
announced is an increase in BBC Three's commitment to new filmmakers. Fresh –
the channel's new talent strand which seeks out the next generation of documentary-makers
– is doubling its number of commissions to six hours for the channel's returning
Adult season next year. Submissions are invited for films exploring the theme
of becoming an adult in Britain today. Those selected will each receive a commission
for a 60-minute documentary. Moore
says, "In the past year, documentaries on BBC Three have continued to blaze
a trail of originality and bravery through subjects tailored to its broad young
audience. Fresh is very much a part of the channel's commitment supporting new
talent and fostering innovation, so I'm proud to announce that we're strengthening
that commitment in 2010 by doubling the number of hours we're commissioning for
the Fresh strand."
In next year's Being Mum season, BBC One turns its attention to aspects
of motherhood with four programmes which will air in the channel's regular documentary
slot at 10.35 pm. Filmed
over 18 months, A Baby To Save Me follows couples as they undergo cutting-edge
treatment to try to cure their sick child. Each child requires a bone-marrow transplant
but no tissue match has been found. Instead, by using IVF techniques, it is possible
for the mother to have a new baby unaffected by the disease and who will be a
tissue match for their ill sibling. With
no legal age limits on IVF treatment and the biological boundaries being pushed
further and further, women are having babies older than ever before. Too
Old To Be A Mum? (CTVC) meets a woman approaching 60 who is thinking about having
another child, and a 63-year-old who has three children under five, and explores
the debate around how to decide when someone may be too old to be a new mum. With
access to one of Britain's leading child and adolescent mental health trusts,
My Child Hates Me charts the stories of two families torn apart by having
an aggressive child. The documentary looks at the work of the family therapy teams
who try to rebuild parent/child relationships dominated by years of violent and
anti-social behaviour. My
Child Won't Speak follows three young girls with a rare emotional disorder,
known as selective mutism, as they struggle to overcome their phobia and speak
to people other than their parents for the first time in years. Coming
to BBC Two next year is a new three-part documentary series, Great Ormond Street.
Filmed
over a year, it follows doctors at Britain's top children's hospital. When technology
can do so much, every parent hopes for the miracle that their child will get better.
With unprecedented access to the normally closed world of medical decision-making,
it explores how doctors face up to dilemmas of life and death. BBC
Two has announced three new programmes on the subject of education. Catchment
takes viewers on a year-long journey through the process of choosing which school
a child will go to once they finish primary school, arguably one of the most intense
decisions a family can take. The two films look at the decision-making process
from all viewpoints – the children, the parents, schools, and the local education
authority. Filmed in Birmingham, one of the largest education authorities in Europe,
the series gives an insight into the reality of choice (or otherwise) available
to parents in Britain today. With
recent studies showing that schoolchildren in the UK are among the unhappiest
and most tested in the western world, and reports that many of the current generation
of boys are underachieving at school, two documentary series try to tackle the
issues putting innovative new approaches to the test. In
the two-part The Perfect School education expert Dylan Wiliam sets up an
experimental classroom in a secondary school. Across one term, he puts to the
test some of the most forward-thinking and innovative ideas designed to revolutionise
the standard of education and the well-being of school children in this country.
In the
three-part series, Dangerous School For Boys Gareth Malone (The Choir)
sets up his own school specially designed to appeal to a cross-section of 11-year-old
boys, whether sporty jocks or secret swots. Based on the most recent educational
research, Gareth introduces his pupils to the concepts of unbridled competition,
risk and adventure. His aim is to harness the power of boisterous behaviour and
challenge the boys' apparent aversion to standing out from the crowd so that they
feel more confident about aiming for better grades.
BBC Three is commissioning six one-hour films for its new talent strand, Fresh.
Submissions are invited for documentaries exploring the theme of becoming an adult
in Britain today. Those selected will each receive a commission for a 60-minute
documentary. The
Fresh documentaries commissioned in 2009 made an impact in the channel's Adult
Season which aired in August. Tony: I've Lost My Family – directed
by Max Fisher had the highest audience appreciation of the season, says the broadcaster.
The Autistic Me, directed by Matt Rudge, was one of the highest rating
single documentaries ever on the channel. A follow-up to The Autistic Me
has now been commissioned from Matt. The
subject of fatherhood in both an historical and contemporary context is tackled
in a season of programmes coming to BBC Four next year. Contact
Centres, made by Brian Hill, is a bittersweet one-off observational film featuring
the stories of dads fighting against tough odds to see their children. The film
lays bare their courage and determination to build relationships with their kids
in what can be the most difficult of circumstances. A
Century of Fatherhood charts the revolution in modern fatherhood in Britain
during the last 100 years. The three-part documentary series provides a unique
insight into this century of dramatic change through the deeply moving testimony
of dads of all ages. Even the oldest generation drop their traditional British
reserve to reveal heartfelt secrets from their past. The
world of literature reserves a special fate for fathers – they are either
missing or marginalised or regarded as an embarrassment. In Dads In Literature,
novelist – and father – Andrew Martin, takes a light-hearted journey
through three centuries of literary fatherhood and also looks at how real life
relationships between writers and their fathers have influenced fiction and non-fiction
alike. Who
Needs Dads? takes as its starting point the oft-used phrase, "every child
needs a father" and explores what makes fathers so important. Child psychologist
Laverne Antrobus investigates the psychology of families and also, some of the
extraordinary hidden biological changes that occur in both fathers and their children,
that helps explain why fathers play such a vital role in raising a family. | 
