Documentary Unit: BBC Three Relevant TV Show Research

Danny and Mike both mentioned to me about a documentary that BBC Three had made in the past called Britain's Gay Footballers. The Documentary follows Amal Fashanu, Niece of Justin Fashanu who tragically took his own life after becoming Britain's first openly gay professional footballer.

Here is how BBC 3 describes the show:

'There are currently around 5,000 professional footballers in Britain, but incredibly not one of them has come out publicly as gay. Amal Fashanu, niece of Justin Fashanu, the only ever openly gay British professional, goes on a mission to discover why no gay player has followed in her uncle's boots in over twenty years.

Witnessing the typical chants from opposing fans on the terraces at Brighton, Amal can immediately see why gay players will not put their heads above the parapet. But one of Britain's most famous gay football fans, Matt Lucas, tells her that the problem extends beyond the fans.

Max Clifford, who reveals he has helped several Premiership stars keep their homosexuality secret in order to preserve their careers, goes further by insisting that the mentality of most people in and around the game remains in the Dark Ages. When Amal finally negotiates some access to straight premiership stars - from the Millwall dressing room - she learns that attitudes amongst many footballers may not be as bad as feared.

The Premiership's most controversial and outspoken player, Joey Barton, who like Amal has a gay uncle, expresses 'pity' for his fellow professionals who lack the courage to speak out on the subject, but blames the game's homophobia on some of the 'archaic figures' who run the game. Amal also gains access to a professional game official prepared to come forward and meet her to discuss life as a gay man inside the game, but the politics of the game prevent him.

Amidst these fascinating revelations about football's last taboo, Amal becomes embroiled in a deeply personal journey. For the first time she is exposed to the full truth about her family's darkest secrets.'

Here are the links to the show on youtube:

This was really interesting and although it is 1 hour long i feel will be really good research for us when thinking about a script and shots for our own documentary.

Another BBC Three program that relates to this topic is the Coming Out Diaries. 

Here is BBC Three's own description of the documentary series:

'Coming Out Diaries follows the conflicts and dilemmas faced by three young people as they navigate their way through telling their family and friends that they are gay or transgender.

17-year-old Natalie was born a boy, but now wants to dress and live fully as a girl. Her mum Arlene is reeling from the shock of the news and is finding it very difficult to accept that her 'son' is now her 'daughter'. Arlene will not allow Natalie to dress as a girl at home and still calls her Kieran, Natalie's birth name. Natalie can only wear female clothes away from home so she gets changed in public toilets when she is out in town. The film follows Natalie's battle for acceptance and her mum's attempt to understand.

17-year-old Tori feels she was bullied at school for being a lesbian. She wants to come out to her new friends at beauty college so she can become closer to them, but she is terrified after her previous experiences. This is compounded by the fact that at beauty school all the treatments are intimate and she is worried that the other girls will not want her to practice beauty treatments on them in class.

19-year-old Jamie has not told his uni course-mates that he was born a girl. He loves being accepted as one of the lads and is thrilled that for the first time no-one has guessed his secret. But on the flip side, Jamie worries all the time that he is deceiving his course-mates and is thinking about coming out so he can stop feeling like he is living a lie.'

Looking at dog hero's in television there is Sport Relief's Top Dog although this is on BBC2. This show takes 2 teams consisting of a celebrity and their dog, a Specially trained dog & their owner and a talent family pet dog and their owner and pits them against one another. The specially trained dogs are often dogs that work in rescue situations or are trained to help their owner who suffers from a medical condition or disability such as dogs for the deaf or hard of hearing and Dogs for diabetics. 

This is a game show formate and doesn't really go into a lot of detail with the owners about their dogs so it would be good to go into more detail in our documentary. 

An online documentary shows the impact one dog has had on a young boy's life. 

I found the story at this link: 

http://metro.co.uk/2014/02/15/a-boy-and-his-dog-documentary-schwartz-jampel-syndrome-sufferer-owen-howkins-amazing-bond-with-pet-4305353/

Here is the video:

It is perfect for our theme and will give us a good starting point for what to do with our own film.

Nothing like this has been made for BBC 3 before so i think its a fairly original concept that will work well.

Stay safe,

Helen