David DeHaney has announced his decision to close Proper Content, the production company he set up in 2016. Its shows have included C4’s The School that Tried to End Racism and feature documentary Suicidal.
“This has been a very difficult decision,” says DeHaney. “We have had nearly 10 years of making some of the industry’s most talked-about shows; entertaining programmes with social purpose. And that is exactly what I set out to do. But we want to do more, so much more, and the current environment does not support us in making that step-change.”
Proper Content quickly became known as one of the industry’s most exciting black-led indies. The company grew to a turnover of £6m and has since made a wide range of factual content, from returning series to one-off feature documentaries, including: hospital three-parter 999: The Critical List for Channel 4; eight-part series The Changemakers for Paramount Plus; Edinburgh TV Festival Climate Impact Award winner Chris Packham: Is it Time to Break the Law? for Channel 4; Mums on Strike, the Channel 5 series in which families try and cope when the person doing the most steps aside; two series of The King’s Guard for Channel 5 following the Household Division in the run-up to the Coronation; Grierson Award-winning feature documentary Suicidal: In Our Own Words; Anorexic for Channel 5; and Channel 4’s The School That Tried to End Racism, which won a Grierson Award, a Venice TV Award, a Rose d’Or and a BAFTA.
More recently, the company delivered the BBC documentary P Diddy: Rise and Fall and the BBC feature-length documentary Kidnapped By My Mum, which attracted an audience of more than 1.7 million viewers. Proper Content also continues to fulfil existing commitments, including a new surgery series for Channel 5 and a luxury series for Channel 4 due to air later this year.
“We are extremely proud of what we have achieved with Proper Content,” adds DeHaney. “We have held up a lens to society in so many different ways, and to such a variety of audiences. As a growing indie, we couldn’t have done more. Yet, for a company like ours, at this stage in its development, going to the next stage is incredibly challenging. There simply isn’t the commissioning risk, or the time or space to let companies stretch their wings in new ways. And, as a result, companies get ‘stuck’ – which doesn’t feel like a good, or a creative place to be.”
DeHaney has openly talked about his desire to do things differently; to build a bedrock of work from which to move into different areas. He has also talked about the industry’s ecology, which tends not to favour black-led companies.
“We have achieved what we have achieved despite this,” he adds. “It is not the central reason for our decision. We feel we have so much more to offer and aren’t fulfilling that potential. That is why we are closing.
“The reality is that the market has changed dramatically in recent years. Commissioning budgets have tightened, development cycles have lengthened and the opportunities for growing indies to scale have become increasingly limited. Those pressures have affected many companies across the sector and have undoubtedly contributed to the position we find ourselves in today.
“My priority at the moment is continuing to work proactively with our freelancers and staff, as well as our broadcasting customers and collaborators, to ensure that the closure has as little impact as possible. I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has worked with and supported us over the last decade. Together we have told some incredible stories, built a remarkable company and achieved far more than I could ever have imagined when we started in 2016.
“While Proper Content is coming to an end, my passion for storytelling and creating ambitious new projects remains undiminished. I am excited about what comes next.”
The company will appoint an administrator shortly, after which the company will cease trading.
Pippa Considine
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