Scorpion strikes primetime current-affairs deals
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Editor
| 22 March 2019

London-based independent content distributor Scorpion TV has struck four new representation deals for three current-affairs documentaries and a series.

The agreements include a worldwide licence deal for two documentaries from TI Productions, which creates factual, fact-ent and documentary programming for UK and international broadcasters. The production company is a subsidiary of TI Media, which owns more than 40 of the UK’s best-loved media brands, including Country Life, NME and Wallpaper*.

Inside Britain’s Black Market (1 x 30 mins), produced by TI for BBC Three, digs deep into the black market that operates on both on the UK’s streets and online, exposing the criminals who are flooding the country with fake clothes and pills. Also produced by TI for BBC Three is Inside the Real Saudi Arabia: Why I Had to Leave (1 x 45 mins), which follows Saudi-born UK fashion stylist Basma Khalifa on an exploratory trip to Saudi Arabia (pictured), a country she has not visited since her parents moved to the UK when she was three. The purpose of Khalifa’s visit to see whether she could return permanently to her native country.

In a second representation deal, Scorpion has picked up Britain: A Year of Hate Crime (1 x 45), produced by Century Films for Channel 4. The documentary charts the rise in hate crimes against Muslims across the UK in the wake of the Manchester Arena bombing. Taking viewers to the frontline of racial hatred, the film blends poignant testimonies from Muslim community leaders with the intense reality of a country responding to a terror attack.

A final deal with independent Dutch producer and director Tim van den Hoff sees the 54-minute HD documentary Monumental Crossroads: The Fight for Southern Heritage join Scorpion’s catalogue of current-affairs programming. It looks at the growing trend throughout the southern states of the US to remove confederate monuments, sparking a rancorous debate about what’s worth remembering and what’s best forgotten.

“Everyone knows that distribution is hard graft and the only thing that sets you apart from your many, many competitors is the quality and distinctiveness of your shows,” said Scorpion TV founder David Cornwall. “The world is going through strange times and these brilliant, insightful, uncomfortable docs are the result of some of the most informed and creative minds in television attempting to make sense of it.”