BBC Studios has secured a first-look deal with David Olusoga and Mike Smith’s production company Uplands TV.
Negotiated through BBC Studios’ Content Partnerships team, the three-year deal offers the BBC’s commercial arm a first look on Uplands’ development slate, with a particular focus on premium history, documentaries and landmark series.
Uplands’ catalogue includes critically-acclaimed titles such as The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files(BBC TWO); The Unremembered (C4) and Alt History (BBC iPlayer) as well as upcoming landmark history titles The Forgotten Empire (BBC TWO and PBS) and One Thousand Years of Slavery (Channel 5/Smithsonian).
Mark Linsey, BBC Studios’ Chief Creative Officer, said: “Mike and David create television that is both accessible to watch and thought-provoking. They are experts in story-telling, using their background in history and programme-making to engage and enlighten audiences, even on difficult subject matters. This makes their work fresh, unique and inclusive, which is why we’re so glad that their new projects will become part of the BBC Studios catalogue.”
Mike Smith and David Olusoga, Co-founders of Uplands TV added: “Our ambition in founding Uplands TV was to create television that brought a diverse range of factual stories and history to life which would appeal to a range of audiences in Britain and across the world. We know that Mark and his team share our passion and that BBC Studios – with its global footprint – can help us to realise that ambition. We can’t wait to see where our next projects take us.”
Jon Creamer
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