Profile: Tom Brisley

Tom Brisley, the creative director at Darlow Smithson Productions, talks to TV Real Weekly about the company’s drive to give specialist-factual stories mainstream appeal.

While many consider feats of engineering, supersonic jets or stories of extreme survival to be niche interests, Darlow Smithson Productions believes that these subjects can have vast appeal for mainstream audiences. Tom Brisley, the company’s creative director, cites the new documentary Concorde: The Supersonic Age—commissioned by Channel 4, Discovery UK and Smithsonian Channel—as an example of a project that "takes what can be a very specialist-factual idea and gives it a very mainstream feel."

He explains, "For me, the genres are all blurring at the moment. Specialist factual isn’t necessarily specialist factual; it’s also got to draw in the audience. Audiences need entertaining and sometimes that comes from mainstream spins—you get fantastic content that is presented in an entertaining way. I think we’re having success in that area at the moment. Concorde is just one example."

He further cites a new six-part series Darlow Smithson is producing for Channel 4 as a project that merges entertainment and specialist factual. "It’s really exciting," Brisley says. "I think as far as commissioners are concerned now, that’s an area that they’re really keen to explore."

And the company’s list of commissioners includes a roster of heavy-hitters, the likes of National Geographic Channel, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel. Brisley says that establishing and nurturing the relationships with broadcasters is not only about having good ideas, but rather being able to deliver on them. "It’s all about trust," he adds. "They’re not going to commission a company that they don’t trust."

He also stresses the value of meeting face to face with broadcasters. "Either myself or my colleague John Smithson, one of us or both of us, are in America every six weeks to meet people. That’s so important in maintaining relationships. Also, having an understanding of exactly what their needs are. The needs of broadcasters are ever changing, and you’ve got to be there so that you’re able to understand what their needs are and what their market is requiring so that you can deliver ideas that fit into those needs."

Its strong ties with broadcasters have helped secure recommissions on several projects. For example, I Shouldn’t Be Alive, which tells the stories of ordinary people thrown into epic struggles for survival, is in its third run on Animal Planet. Brisley says that there are a lot more stories to be told there as well. "You’ve got to find subjects where you know there are different stories out there that you can find. On a show like I Shouldn’t Be Alive, you know that people are going to continue to end up in difficult circumstances, because accidents will always happen. By the end of season three, there are 30 stories, but really, there are hundreds out there. So, if it continues to rate, and Animal Planet still want it, I’m sure we’ll keep delivering."

Darlow Smithson has also found returning success with its Megastructures strand. National Geographic Channel recently commissioned three new engineering specials within the franchise, this time spotlighting the construction hotbeds of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

The company has further made a name for itself in producing topical fast-turnaround docs, including How Safe are the Skies? Detroit Flight 253, 9/11 The Anatomy of a Collapse and Miracle of the Hudson Planet Crash. Brisley says that these projects, produced on tight timelines to keep pace with issues in the news, present quite the challenge. "You have to be completely credible and factually accurate, but then you also have to be able to tell a compelling story," he explains.

Brisley adds that an area Darlow Smithson is starting to look at more is formats, finding factual formats and specialist-factual formats. As the company is now part of the Endemol Group, a behemoth in the format market, this drive should come as an organic evolution. Darlow Smithson was acquired by Endemol last November and Brisley says that the pairing couldn’t be more in line with the company’s goals. "The great thing about Endemol is that it’s a creative company and they care about ideas. That’s what we are at our heart, so there’s a real synergy between what they do and what we do. At the core, what both companies do is tell amazing stories and find creative ways of telling stories. What we do now is bounce ideas off each other. Every month the Endemol creative team and our creative team sit down and have a brainstorm. What’s really good is that we both approach stories from different angles and different ways in. They’ll give an entertainment spin, we’ll give it a story spin, then you can merge those two ideas to find something that’s both an amazing story and is very entertaining. It’s a relationship that really works for us."

The first pilot to come about as a result of brainstorming between the two companies is in the works, according to Brisley, who also notes that there are a further six projects in production at the moment that have yet to be launched.

"We’re still a factual company, we still do specialist factual, but we want to apply our storytelling skills to popular factual and mainstream television and more," Brisley notes. "We also want to apply our storytelling skills to formats more and more. I think some of the announcements over the coming months will show that we’re starting to deliver on that."