In the New Year, Sky will release three-part docuseries Dart Kings (3×60’), produced by Mindhouse Productions and with executive producer Nancy Strang.
The series marks the latest collaboration between Sky and Mindhouse Productions following the BAFTA win for Lockerbie earlier this year and feature documentary Tell Them You Love Me.
Dart Kings takes viewers on a trip down memory lane through the golden age of darts and shines a spotlight on the nation’s most unlikely sporting heroes Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson and Phil Taylor.
In 1972, darts staggered out of the pub and onto British primetime television, bringing with it a cast of unlikely sporting heroes. Today, discipline is key to sporting success but in those first moments when the game hit the bigtime, the greatest players mixed extraordinary skill at the oche with boozing, chain-smoking, and an open-door policy to fans and the media alike.
It was this combination of skill and personality that brought in television audiences of over 10 million and created some of the most memorable characters in sporting history.
Against a backdrop of rising unemployment and unrest in 1980s Britain, darts brought entertainment and energy to British audiences. The series explores the journeys of three of the greatest names in darts, charting their rise, rivalries, heartache, and triumphs through the 1970s, ‘80s and ’90s.
The series features interviews with the darts stars of their day including “The King of Bling” Bobby George, John Lowe, Keith Deller, Bob Anderson, Dennis Priestley, Dave Whitcombe, Linda Duffy, Maureen Flowers alongside commentary from Richard Ashdown, Julie Welch, Peter Purves, infamous sports promoter Barry Hearn and Phil “The Power” Taylor.
Nancy Strang says: “Darts is now a huge television spectacle and one of the biggest sports in the UK, but the people that really put the game on the map were a cast of brilliant working-class players who emerged in the 1980s and who, with their remarkable talent and personalities, transformed the pub game into what it is today. This series is an opportunity to celebrate those players, to lean into this magnificent sporting subculture and the soap opera of their rivalries and lives; while reliving some of the greatest moments in the game’s history.”
Hayley Reynolds, Acting Director of Documentaries and Factual at Sky, added: “In the year of Dartsmania, we’re thrilled to be teaming up once again with the brilliant team at Mindhouse, to tell the origins story of a sport that really is like no other. Whether you are a darts fan or not, this series will set the scene for how this sport enchanted the nation and grew its fandom that we see today. Sky is proud to support such an epic sport across our various channels.”
Dart Kings is a Mindhouse production, commissioned for Sky Documentaries by Hayley Reynolds, Acting Director of Documentaries and Factual. Kathryn Taylor is the Commissioning Editor for Sky. Executive Producers for Mindhouse are Nancy Strang and Emma Whitehead. The Series Producer is Claire McFall. Becks Chapman also produces and the Line Producer is Dejan Cancar.
Pippa Considine
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