Channel 4 Unveils Space Shuttle, 9/11 Docs

LONDON: Channel 4 has commissioned Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) to produce a film about the last Space Shuttle flight, while also unveiling a raft of documentaries for broadcast in line with the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Last Flight of the Space Shuttle will air on Channel 4 on the July 24 to coincide with the final launch. It will feature interviews with NASA scientists and astronauts and Smithsonian space history historians, as well as archive footage and CGI animation. The 90-minute special is a production for Channel 4 and Smithsonian Channel and will be sold worldwide by Endemol Worldwide Distribution.

The U.K. broadcaster has also planned a season of docs commemorating 9/11: Testimony Films’ 9/11: ER and 9/11: The Fireman’s Story, Darlow Smithson’s Children of 9/11, Nutopia’s Targeting Bin Laden and CTVC’s Inside the Mosque at Ground Zero.

"In 9/11: The Tenth Anniversary, two documentaries tell the stories of those caught up in the events of 9/11," said Hamish Mykura, head of documentaries. "In 9/11:ER, we see how timely intervention saved the lives of hundreds of walking wounded. 9/11:The Fireman’s Story explores the reality of what the fire-fighters achieved on 9/11 and the impact that had on their lives. Targeting Bin Laden is an ambitious drama-documentary, setting out a range of perspectives to tell the dramatic story of the operation to kill Bin Laden."

Ralph Lee, head of specialist factual, added, "The story of the proposed Mosque at Ground Zero is an extraordinary prism through which we can view the ways that America has and hasn’t been able to accommodate Islam post 9/11. With Children of 9/11, the passage of time since the attack on the Twin Towers is put in stark relief, as we see the events through the eyes of a generation for whom it defined their personal lives and the wider world in which they have grown up."