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ClearStory Ltd is a British independent television production company. Founded in 2010 by the film-makers Russell Barnes and Molly Milton, it produces factual programming, often in the history and science genres, and has explored provocative social issues through documentary formats, sparking controversies.

The company's credits include Dawkins: Sex, Death & the Meaning of Life for Channel 4, Men of the Thames for London Live, Long Shadow for BBC2 and World War Two: 1945 & the Wheelchair President[1][2] BBC Four.

In 2011, ClearStory produced Gypsy Blood, an award-winning[3] observational documentary, directed by photographer Leo Maguire about gypsy fathers and sons for the True Stories strand on Channel 4. Broadcast in January 2012, the film won critical praise[4] but also drew complaints from animal rights activists for its depiction of alleged animal cruelty perpetrated by some of the film's characters.[5] In March 2012, Ofcom dropped these complaints, stating they did not raise issues that warranted investigation.[6]

In 2013, ClearStory produced Sex Box, a one-hour formatted studio show broadcast on Channel 4 as part of its Real Sex season. In Sex Box, couples had sex in a specially constructed box in a TV studio, then emerged to talk about what happened and their sex lives more generally with agony aunt Mariella Frostrup and a panel of experts – Phillip Hodson, Tracey Cox and Dan Savage. The programme received mainly negative reviews. Its second series aired in 2016, bringing the show to a total of 11 episodes. Sex Box has been syndicated to several territories, including America where it was broadcast in 2015 on WE tv channel.[7][8]

In 2016, Channel 5 broadcast Battlefield Recovery, ClearStory's series exploring the history of World War Two's Eastern Front. The series follows the work of authorised volunteers who excavate soldiers still left behind in the fields and forests of Latvia and Poland to bury them with honour in official cemeteries.[9] The series previously sparked controversy amongst some archaeologists when it was launched by the National Geographic Channel in 2014 as ‘Nazi War Diggers’.[10] In 2016, archaeologists complained about the Channel 5 broadcast but Ofcom dismissed these complaints following broadcast of the series and stated: ‘The series dealt effectively with potential audience concerns about the contributors’ methods. It made clear that the specific practices adopted were undertaken within recognised protocols. Scenes that featured human remains were dealt with sensitively, and the contributors appeared visibly moved by their discoveries.’

In 2017, ClearStory produced a one-off documentary, Damien Hirst by Harry Hill, for Sky Arts' Passions strand.[11][12] The film, an affectionate parody of an arts documentary presented by comedian Harry Hill, was broadcast to coincide with Hirst's controversial show at the Venice Biennale, Treasures of the Wreck of the Unbelievable.[13][14]

ClearStory's Great Village Green Crusade[15][16][17] starred Red Dwarf actor Robert Llewellyn in a quest to turn his Cotswolds village on to renewable energy. Promoted as a cross between The Archers and An Inconvenient Truth, the feature-length science film included sequences in Las Vegas, exploring the city's drive to use only solar power, which has been overshadowed by lawsuits with regulators and Nevada state utility companies.[18][19]

Utopia: In Search of the Dream[20][21][22][23] was ClearStory's three-part BBC Arts series, in which Professor Richard Clay of Newcastle University interrogated different notions of utopia – imagined, built or experienced – with a range of interviewees such as Norman Foster, Nichelle Nichols, Sid Meier and Frank Spotnitz, exploring how utopias spur creativity and reflect our deepest hopes and fears. The first episode featured a sequence at Wikimedia's spring 2017 conference in Berlin and interview with Wikimedia Foundation director Katherine Maher.[24]

ClearStory worked in collaboration with the dance company Sadler’s Wells in 2018 and 2020 to produce two series of DanceWorks [25] for BBC4. The series profiled major dancers, including Dickson Mbi, Maria Pages and Sharon Eyal of L-E-V Company facing creative challenges at different moments in their careers. The episode about prima ballerina Zenaida Yanowsky, The Dying Swan, won the Grand Prix at 2019 Golden Prague festival.[26]

In 2020, ClearStory’s BBC4 series African Renaissance [27] was broadcast to critical acclaim and shortlisted for RTS and Broadcast Awards.[28][29][30] In the series, journalist Afua Hirsch goes on a cultural travelogue through Ethiopia, Senegal and Kenya, meeting artists and creatives including Aida Muluneh, Didier Awadi and Michael Soi.

Art That Made Us, ClearStory’s eight-part history of creativity in the British Isles aired in May 2022 with a positive critical reception and shortlisting for awards including the Rose D’Or.[31][32][33][34][35][36] The series featured encounters between artists, thinkers and actors of today and art and literature of the past. Contributors included Michael Sheen, Antony Gormley and Lubaina Himid among many others.

In 2022, ClearStory produced Jimmy Carr Destroys Art, a programme designed to break the taboo around destruction of art and explore in what circumstances that may be justified. The programme, presented by comedian Jimmy Carr, generated controversy even before broadcast [37][38][39][40]

ClearStory's corporate work includes the short #Connect for Durex. A Webby and DMA awards nominee, the official version scored over 75 million hits worldwide.[41][42]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "BBC".
  2. ^ "The ArtsDesk".
  3. ^ "Grierson Trust". Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
  4. ^ Wollaston, Sam (19 January 2012). "Guardian Review". The Guardian. London.
  5. ^ "Gypsy Blood sparks 289 complaints".
  6. ^ "Gypsy Blood complaints top 1,000". Broadcast.
  7. ^ Stern, Marlow (21 August 2014). "'Sex Box,' a Reality TV Show Where Couples Have Sex in a Box and Discuss It, is Coming to America". The Daily Beast.
  8. ^ "'Sex Box': WE tv's New Dating Show Goes All the Way". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2 September 2014. Retrieved 2 September 2014.
  9. ^ "ClearStory".
  10. ^ "Real Screen".
  11. ^ "Passions". Sky. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  12. ^ "Passions – S1 – Episode 5: Damien Hirst by Harry Hill". Radio Times. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  13. ^ Cumming, Laura (16 April 2017). "Damien Hirst: Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable review – beautiful and monstrous". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  14. ^ Russeth, Andrew (8 May 2017). "A Disastrous Damien Hirst Show in Venice". ARTnews. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  15. ^ "The Great Village Green Crusade – BBC Four". BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  16. ^ Llewellyn, Robert (29 May 2017). "Robert Llewellyn: How I inspired a green revolution in my Cotswold village". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  17. ^ Addley, Esther (30 May 2017). "Robert Llewellyn's quest to spur a green energy revolution in his village". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  18. ^ "Las Vegas City Services Are Now Powered Entirely By Renewable Energy". HuffPost. 20 December 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  19. ^ Hernandez, Dan (7 March 2016). "Las Vegas casinos seek to power their bright lights with renewable energy". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  20. ^ "Utopia: In Search of the Dream – BBC Four". BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  21. ^ Ferguson, Euan (13 August 2017). "The week in TV: Eden: Paradise Lost; Citizen Jane; Utopia: In Search of the Dream; Trust Me; Diana: In Her Own Words". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  22. ^ "Utopia: In Search of the Dream, BBC Four review – the best of all possible documentaries?". theartsdesk.com. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  23. ^ Whetstone, David (4 August 2017). "Newcastle prof hunts for Utopia". nechronicle. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  24. ^ BBC (10 August 2017), Is Wikipedia a modern utopia? – Utopia: In Search of The Dream – BBC Four, retrieved 30 November 2017
  25. ^ {{Cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b2lww7 http://blog.sadlerswells.com/sadlers-wells-partners-with-bbc-four-on-new-danceworks-series/
  26. ^ "23 - The Dying Swan". zlatapraha.ceskatelevize.cz. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  27. ^ "African Renaissance: When Art Meets Power". BBC Four. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  28. ^ "BBC4's African Renaissance is a dazzling investigation of art, power and culture". ft.com. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  29. ^ "RTS Programme Awards 2021". Royal Television Society. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  30. ^ "Best specialist factual: A House Through Time". broadcastnow.co.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  31. ^ "Art That Made Us". BBC Two. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  32. ^ "Rose d'Or 2022 Shortlist". Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  33. ^ "2022 Shortlist". tmt.knect365.com. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  34. ^ "BBC series Art That Made Us sets out to upset preconceptions". ft.com. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  35. ^ "This week's Big TV picks: Art That Made Us, Hacks, Slow Horses and The Andy Warhol Diaries". bigissue.com. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  36. ^ "An impeccably rule-observing programme from the BBC: Art That Made Us reviewed". spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  37. ^ "Channel 4 buys painting by Hitler – and may let Jimmy Carr destroy it". The Guardian. 13 October 2022. Retrieved 28 October 2022.
  38. ^ "A UK TV station bought a painting by Hitler. A studio audience will vote on whether to destroy it". CNN. 14 October 2022.
  39. ^ "Channel 4 defends new show Jimmy Carr Destroys Art which could see painting by Hitler shredded". Evening Standard. 14 October 2022.
  40. ^ "Hitler's watercolours are best ignored, but you have to reckon with the power of Eric Gill". The Guardian. 16 October 2022.
  41. ^ "Durex Beautifully Slays the Real Enemy of Sex in New Marketing Film". Forbes.
  42. ^ "Top 10 Branded Videos: Durex's Secret Bedroom Technology Takes over YouTube". Adweek.
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