Leading independent distributor All3Media International has secured global rights to distribute a slate of brand-new premium unscripted titles from Anna Hall’s multi-award-winning indie Candour Productions.
Featuring in the deal is the critically acclaimed The Essex Millionaire Murders (2 x 1 hour), a jaw-dropping, globally relevant story of deception, manipulation and murder that launched last month ITV and ranks as ITV1’s highest-rated documentary of the year to date. Also produced for ITV and set to air later this year, The British Blood Scandal: Poisoned at School is a one-hour special revealing an untold chapter in the worst medical disaster in NHS history.
Two upcoming Candour Productions’ titles for Channel 4 will also now showcase globally with All3Media International. Feature-length special The Disappearance of Jay Slater (w/t) delves into the disappearance of British teen Jay Slater in Tenerife last year, and Slaying at Sycamore Gap (w/t, 2 x 1 hour) explores the deliberate felling of the iconic Sycamore Gap tree, a headline-grabbing crime that continues to garner attention around the world following the recent trial.
Candour Productions is an acclaimed, female-led independent production company founded by renowned BAFTA Award winning filmmaker Anna Hall. Candour Productions has won and been nominated for numerous awards including BAFTAs, Griersons, Royal Television Society Award, Asian Media Awards and British Journalism Awards and won the Royal Television Society Award for Journalism.
Rachel Job, SVP Unscripted Content at All3Media International commented, “We have long admired Candour’s high-quality, agenda-setting documentaries and the company’s work in championing inclusive filmmaking, so we are thrilled to bring this collection of Candour’s titles to a global stage. The demand for thought-provoking, attention-grabbing documentaries is as strong as ever, and our clients – and their viewers – will be eager to dive into this collection. Collaborating with producers of Candour’s calibre ensures we continue to be the go-to source of premium, unscripted titles from the industry’s very best creatives, and we hope this will be just the start of a successful partnership.”
Anna Hall, Founder & Chief Creative Officer at Candour Productions, added, “We’re very pleased to partner with All3Media International on taking four of our latest titles to the global market. The team has an impressive track record in maximising the international potential of premium documentaries, so we know they are in expert hands. The titles joining All3Media International’s slate explore globally relevant themes of grooming, fraud and online safety to a bizarre crime that reverberated around the world – and we look forward to these important stories reaching a worldwide audience.”
The Essex Millionaire Murders is a chilling story of deception, catfishing, grooming and manipulation that recently debuted on ITV in the UK to critical acclaim and stellar ratings, averaging 3.2 million viewers across the 2-part series**. Exploring the murders of Carol and Stephen Baxter, a millionaire couple found dead in their homes, the documentary reveals how an unassuming IT worker infiltrated the couple’s lives, evolving from surrogate son to callous killer. With exclusive access to the police investigation and to family members, The Essex Millionaire Murders weaves together interviews, archive and evidence to shine a light on how violent and psychological crimes can be committed by the most inconspicuous perpetrators and on the vulnerability of people in the digital era.
Commissioned by ITV, powerful documentary The British Blood Scandal: Poisoned at School pieces together a devastating story at the heart of the contaminated blood scandal of the 1970s and 1980s. The one-hour film centres on the haemophiliac children who were sent to a specialist boarding school, only to become victims of secret medical research that left many with HIV and Hepatitis C. Through deeply personal testimony and archive, The British Blood Scandal: Poisoned at School follows the few remaining survivors to reveal a story of resilience, a fight for truth and justice, and an untold chapter in the worst medical disaster in NHS history.
Feature-length documentary The Disappearance of Jay Slater (w/t), commissioned by Channel 4, is the inside, exclusive story of what happened to Jay Slater. As the world’s media were following the story minute by minute last summer, Candour Productions in Leeds were in an incredibly unique position: they had access to the Coronial process in Lancashire. From Jay’s post-mortem to Jay’s inquest, the team have been with the family every step of the way over the last year, as they try and understand exactly what happened to Jay outside of the public gaze. This is a film not only about a tragedy -the story of Jay – a young lad who adored his family and his friends who went to Tenerife to enjoy a music festival. It’s also the story of the new world we live in of ‘online true crime armchair detectives’ and the consequences of the unchecked online world.
With exclusive access to the police investigation into the deliberate felling of the iconic Sycamore Gap tree, Slaying at Sycamore Gap (w/t), commissioned by Channel 4, tells the extraordinary story of a crime that has grabbed international headlines following the recent trial of two suspects. The 200-year-old tree had famously stood in a remote nook of Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland (a UNESCO World Heritage site). A gripping environmental thriller, the series chronicles the twists and turns of the unique and complex investigation into its felling and explores the impact this senseless crime had on the local community and around the world.
