True Tales

Joanna Stephens looks at what’s driving the spate of series and TV movies based on real-life events.

It’s no longer a mistake to let the truth get in the way of a good story. These days, the truth is a good story, as evidenced by the recent spate of fact-based dramas that are pulling in both punters and plaudits for broadcasters worldwide.

Examples abound: Sonar Entertainment’s The Fifth Beatle, ITV Studios Global Entertainment’s Victoria, A+E Networks’ The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, Starz’s The White Princess, BBC Worldwide’s Rillington Place and National Geographic’s first-ever scripted series, Genius, the debut season of which will dramatize the life of Albert Einstein.

So what’s driving the interest in dramas based on real people and events? Why now and why are there suddenly so many?

David Swetman, the senior acquisitions executive for scripted at all3media International, believes the interest flows from drama’s current popularity. “At a time when competition in the drama market is so strong and cutting through so difficult, programs grounded in real life offer commissioners and producers the opportunity to tap into a subject already familiar to audiences,” he says.

Liam Keelan, the director of scripted at BBC Worldwide, says real-life events have always had pulling power, particularly when the subject matter has had universal resonance. “Crime, political intrigue and betrayal travel well,” he adds, on the disheartening basis that murder and machination know no borders.

CRIMINAL MINDS
There’s no doubt that fact is often stranger than fiction. It would, for example, be difficult to make up the events at the heart of BBC Worldwide’s latest offering in the real-life drama genre, Rillington Place. The BBC Studios production in association with Bandit Television stars Tim Roth and Samantha Morton in the story of serial killer John Reginald Christie, who betrayed and manipulated those around him—his wife, his neighbors, even the British justice system—in a series of events that ended in an innocent man being sent to the gallows.

Joel Denton, managing director of international content sales and partnerships at A+E Networks, identifies true-crime series as being among television’s most wanted. “There’s an unbelievable amount of scripted, unscripted and ‘faction’—the merging of factual and scripted—coming through in the true-crime space,” he says.

A+E Networks recently ventured into this market with Asylum Entertainment’s two-hour drama Manson’s Lost Girls, which recounts how messianic cult leader Charles Manson lured young women into his twisted world and brainwashed them into committing a series of horrific murders.

Sarah Tong, the director of sales at Hat Trick International, agrees that crime is particularly well suited to fact-based scripted. “And not just dramas,” she observes. “True crime is also on trend in the factual world.”

At the top of Tong’s crime-drama roster is Hat Trick Productions’ four-part series The Secret. Starring James Nesbitt and Genevieve O’Reilly, it tells the true story of a respected Northern Irish dentist and Sunday-school teacher whose illicit affair culminates in an elaborate plot to kill both of their partners.

“Love, passion, murder, betrayal—The Secret has it all,” Tong says. And the fact that [the events actually occurred] gives it an added frisson of pleasurable horror. The two main characters are ostensibly very ordinary, which also makes it easier for audiences to invest emotionally in their predicament.

“I think the dramas that work are those that have characters and stories you care about, in that you either love them or hate them,” Tong adds. “The Secret is a love story that goes horribly wrong and, although what [the characters] did was unbelievably awful, it was believable. The audience wants to know what happened next because they care about what happened next.”

THEN AND NOW
In Tong’s view, contemporary real-life drama has the commercial edge on historical epics, as it is more likely to appeal to both commercial and public broadcasters. Swetman at all3media echoes this, saying that period drama can be a tougher sell outside of its traditional homes with European and American public broadcasters. “Generally, more contemporary series have a wider reach and more potential international partners,” he adds. “But, as with all drama, the quality of the storytelling and production is the key factor.”

Both Swetman and Tong say there can also be commercial opportunities for companion non-scripted shows to air around dramas. Tong reports that with mega-franchises such as Downton Abbey and Midsomer Murders, there is a market for “very relevant” factual shows that can extend the audience’s interest into another format.

“Documentaries can be a nice addition to the package you can offer broadcasters, but most buyers will be making their decisions based on the drama’s power and relevance to their audiences,” adds Swetman. He points out that many broadcasters have separate documentary and drama channels, or perhaps operate in only one genre, which means there may not be an obvious synergy across the genres.

Up next on the fact-inspired drama front for all3media are Jack Thorne’s National Treasure for Channel 4, which is rooted in the recent instances of celebrities being accused of past sexual misdemeanors, and Stephen Poliakoff’s Close to the Enemy for BBC Two, about a British intelligence officer tasked with inducing a German scientist to hand over military technology following World War II.

In discussing Close to the Enemy, Swetman says that Poliakoff turned “a moment in history that had lived in the shadows” into an epic tale of the Cold War technology race.

Tom Patricia, executive VP of limited series, miniseries and movies at Sonar Entertainment, observes that many key historical events—World War II being a prime example—have been overdone. “So if you’re trying to sell a historical piece, it must resonate beyond those particular events and have something unique that will appeal to a contemporary audience,” he advises.

HISTORY REPEATED
Despite the fact that it tells the story of a woman born nearly 200 years ago, Victoria has contemporary appeal by the royal coachload, believes Ruth Berry, the managing director of ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE). The eight-part Mammoth Screen production for ITV and PBS’s Masterpiece follows the early life of Queen Victoria—played by Doctor Who alum Jenna Coleman—from her accession to the throne at the age of 18 to her marriage to Prince Albert in 1840.

“It’s not a well-documented period of Victoria’s life, but it was a fascinating time of enormous change,” Berry says, echoing Patricia’s point about needing a fresh angle to hook audiences into well-trodden stories.

Berry praises writer Daisy Goodwin’s scrupulous historical research and her interpretation of Victoria’s early diaries, which form the basis of the drama and the portal into the young queen’s world. The result is a richly layered narrative that offers new insight into not only Victoria’s personal story but also the stories of her court, servants and ladies-in-waiting. It also explores Victoria’s relationship with her mentor and Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne—played by Rufus Sewell—with whom Victoria “definitely had chemistry,” Berry says. “But it’s not about delivering a history lesson,” she stresses. “It’s about taking viewers on an immersive journey into a life and time period, which is much more appealing.”

Another element that makes Victoria an excellent subject for a drama series is that, in the words of Berry, “she went on and on and on,” reigning from 1837 to 1901. Dramas about real people tend to be short runs because lives ultimately end. But with ITVS GE’s series covering only the first three years of Victoria’s 64-year reign, there is plenty of scope to continue the series and build a long-running brand. ITV has already greenlit season two.

With four seasons and 300-plus hour-long episodes, TIMS Productions’ Magnificent Century undoubtedly qualifies as a durable, long-running brand. Izzet Pinto, founder and CEO of Global Agency, which distributes the show, reports that the historical epic about the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent has now been sold to more than 75 territories and been seen by close to 300 million viewers. Global Agency’s best-selling drama has also spawned a sequel, Magnificent Century Kosem, the second season of which is now in production. It tells the true story of a slave girl who became one of the most powerful women in the Ottoman Empire.

Magnificent Century is historically correct in that it tracks the key events of the 46-year reign of Sultan Suleiman, but the show is “woven with fiction,” according to Pinto. “You have to stick close to the truth with historical figures, but you can play around with the side characters and story lines,” he says. He also believes that a series based on a fascinating event, period or personality presents a huge advantage over pure fiction: a ready-made story with proven pulling power. “All you need to do is hire someone to shine up the script, because the narrative is already there.”

BLURRED LINES
Magnificent Century’s fictionalization of certain aspects of Sultan Suleiman’s reign prompts a good question: what liberties can or should producers take with the facts? Clearly, a Bobby Ewing–style shower scene is out of the question, but how much fantasy is acceptable when dealing with reality? Most agree that it depends on how much source material is available and how well the event or period is known.

“A level of authenticity is important, and there has to be a relationship with the truth,” says ITVS GE’s Berry. “But [the story] also needs to be made appealing to audiences. It’s a fine line for writers.”

This chimes with BBC Worldwide’s Keelan, who also thinks story lines must remain broadly true to the facts. “But viewers generally accept it will be a writer’s interpretation of events and that some artistic license is inevitable,” he says.

For all3media’s Swetman, one good way to venture (carefully) off-piste is “to create a clear narrative running through the spine of the story.” He adds, “Historical events and people’s lives are full of complexity and nuance, which is almost impossible to accurately portray on screen, especially when capturing events over a long period of time. Therefore, the easiest and most important liberty to take is to simplify, whether that’s removing superfluous characters or untangling timelines.”

Carmi Zlotnik, the managing director of Starz, says historical pieces also offer more opportunities for creativity, especially if the events took place in the distant past. “Historical dramas in which there is little in the way of detailed records offer the opportunity to explore what type of person a character could have been,” Zlotnik says. “In that sense, the lack of pure historical record gives you extra creative freedom, while still providing authenticity to the viewer.”

HISTORY IN THE MAKING
Starz’s latest foray into the past is Company Pictures’ The White Princess, which launches at MIPCOM. It is a follow-up to the award-winning miniseries The White Queen—which averaged 4.8 million multiplatform viewers per episode in the U.S.—based on Philippa Gregory’s book series The Cousins’ War. The eight-part drama tells the story of England’s Wars of the Roses from the perspectives of the women used as pawns in the medieval power game—in this case, Princess Elizabeth of York (daughter of White Queen Elizabeth Woodville), who is married off to Henry Tudor in the hope that the marriage will bring peace to the war-torn kingdom. In the event, England is united, but the marriage is swiftly divided by treachery and intrigue.

Sonar’s Patricia agrees that historical pieces offer more room for creative interpretation than, say, a drama based on a contemporary crime, for which producers are likely to be constrained by court transcripts and media coverage. But in the end, he says, a successful fact-based project—as with any successful drama—requires “a big, loud” central event; fascinating, watchable characters; a strong narrative arc that is capable of entertaining audiences while moving them emotionally and/or intellectually; and that good old-fashioned thing, a great story.

BEATLE-MANIA
All these elements can be found in The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story, which Sonar is adapting into an event series from Vivek J. Tiwary’s best-selling graphic novel of the same name.

“Clearly, anything with The Beatles in the title is pre-sold,” Patricia says. “But The Fifth Beatle is more than just a Beatles origin story. It’s also a drama about a brilliant man who struggled with his inner demons while guiding four young men to become the greatest band in the world.” Adding to the project’s allure is the fact that Sonar has secured the rights to Beatles music, which Patricia notes are rarely, “if ever,” granted.

Another company to have successfully mined the music icon seam is A+E Networks, whose 2015 biopic Whitney centers on Whitney Houston’s meteoric rise and her tumultuous marriage to R&B star Bobby Brown. Lifetime followed Whitney with a critically acclaimed exploration of another troubled legend, Marilyn Monroe. Denton says The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe, a miniseries starring Kelli Garner and Susan Sarandon, exemplifies the new approach to biography.

“Biopics used to be treated as ‘womb-to-tomb’ shows,” he says. “But that doesn’t work for today’s audiences. Now people want the hidden stories—in the case of Marilyn, her relationship with her mentally disturbed mother.”

Denton reckons that “slightly iconic figures with some degree of global traction” make the best subjects. “But politicians, unless they’re Churchill or Hitler, don’t usually work,” he says, on the basis that most political figures have no profile or do not appeal outside—or even within—their home turf.

Both Denton and ITVS GE’s Berry pick up on the increasingly blurred line between documentary and the dramatization of real events and people. Berry identifies Netflix’s ten-part doc Making a Murderer and ITV’s own The Investigator: A British Crime Story as trailblazers in this new territory, where straight factual intersects with cinematic representation. “Both shows are as compelling and compulsive to watch as any crime drama,” she adds. “And audiences are responding well to them.”

As with all drama, co-production is a vital tool in pulling together these shows. Hat Trick’s Tong outlines the general view when she says that, with budgets and viewer expectation soaring and fewer broadcasters prepared to fully fund production, “most dramas would not get made if not for the involvement of distributors and/or international partners.”

BETTER TOGETHER
For all3media’s Swetman, there is also a creative benefit to co-producing, particularly when the subject of the drama “straddles international consciousness” or involves characters from more than one country. “The aim is often for the co-production to feel natural—for example, wanting a French partner to work on a series with lots of French history—although off-screen, expedient funding arrangements can be reason enough,” he says.

Sonar’s Patricia believes the right co-production with the right partners can be “terrific for everyone,” in that it not only delivers money but also adds layers to the storytelling and helps attract a high-end cast. “But a co-production needs to have organic international appeal,” he cautions. “And international appeal cannot be forced or pasted on. It must be in the project’s DNA from the beginning.”

Reflecting on the reasons for the current uptick in dramas based on real-life events, Patricia suggests it’s about the safety of the familiar. Because viewers are generally acquainted with the basic facts, “a true story is somewhat pre-sold to the audience,” he says. “And with so many choices on television and streaming, a show that has some awareness is almost a necessity for programmers.”

BBC Worldwide’s Keelan has a more philosophical take, “You could argue that this kind of drama helps viewers make sense of the world around them at a time when global and political events feel ever more unpredictable,” he says.

In a global content market that feels increasingly unpredictable, the same could be said for broadcasters, distributors and producers.

Pictured: Global Agency’s Magnificent Century Kosem.