Bob Fosse: It's Showtime, Sky Arts

Pitching a show to Sky Arts in late 2018, I realised it didn’t quite hit the channel’s sweet spot. But knowing through long experience that it pays to have something in reserve, I had another idea ready to pull out of my metaphorical bag.

It was an idea that had been forming in my mind for a few weeks since reading about an FX drama series about director-choreographer Bob Fosse and his romantic/creative partnership with the late American actress Gwen Verdon.

A new documentary on Fosse, which included some of the grey areas of his life that would have to be addressed in the #MeToo age, was a starting point, but I only had the bare bones. Sky needed at the least a basic script within a few days.

Fortunately, inspiration of a kind flowed – and after reacquainting myself with Fosse’s work, the writing proceeded with (comparative) ease. Sky was happy to commit, based on what was by then a surprisingly detailed outline.

The budget was testing, but that was all part of the challenge of delivering what I hoped would be a quality documentary that stood out from the rest of the field.

As a jobbing broadcast consultant, media commentator (including for Broadcast) and occasional executive producer, I knew that I needed to surround myself with the best talent I could find to pick up the large amount of professional slack.

I talked to two soon-to-be colleagues who immediately sprung to mind: presenter, producer and former channel controller Julien Planté and director, producer and production guru Lucia Helenka.

With their artistically minded sensibility, extensive contacts, can-do attitude and ability to turn around great-looking shows on tight budgets, I’d found two ideal partners for Fosse and – as co-owners of our new company Pan Productions – beyond.

If this all sounds like a walk in the park then rest assured, not everything went to plan. On the financing side, we lost investment, having to dip into our own funds to kickstart the production – previously always a no-no in my book. But in a way, it was now or never, so we jumped in.

It was a steep learning curve, with venues, a voiceover artist (the incomparable Kerry Shale), crew and, most importantly, interviewees, all having to be secured – and paid.

But luck and hard work were on our side as Lucia and Julien recruited a first-class crew, including DoPs Luke Glover, Aaron Trinder and David Rafique, and editor Andy Evans.

We were also fortunate with our ‘talking heads’, who included popular entertainers and Fosse aficionados Will Young and Louise Redknapp, as well as choreographers, academics and esteemed film and stage critics Jason Solomons and David Benedict.

The Sky Arts team were extremely collegiate and trusted us to get on with the job. They provided advice when asked, but were otherwise happy for us to follow the brief. With a specially recorded dance sequence ‘in the style of ’ Fosse, we’ve produced what we believe is a very entertaining, informative and watchable hour of TV.

One thing I would say to any budding documentary-maker who wants to include film clips and music is to study fair-dealing guidelines closely. Thankfully, we managed to nail the clips down to what exactly was being said in the narration and interviewee’s comments, sometimes at the expense of my prose.

Music rights gave us pause for thought but, except for one iconic track that we really needed, we managed to use what was in the clips, together with a few surprisingly appropriate library musical interludes, so costs were kept to a level that we could live with.

The proof of the pudding will come in the spring when Bob Fosse: It’s Showtime airs on Sky Arts. This is just the start for Pan, and we are now in the process of developing several other factual-hybrid genre projects – one of which has been commissioned.

Subjects on our slate include the visual arts, music, fascinating but little-known real life ‘Zelig’-type characters, esotericism, arts and social events that changed the world, drama shorts, discussion shows and much more besides.