Jane Root, Nutopia

The trailer for Nutopia’s Great Britain: Our Story (working title) wouldn’t look out of place promoting Game of Thrones. Okay, there are no dwarves having sex, but it certainly feels more like a sword-wielding epic than a documentary rooted in detailed research.

It’s an approach that led to three different broadcasters presenting Nutopia series at the recent US upfronts, and it’s one that embraces a broad-brush appeal.

“It’s about presenting deep thinking in an accessible way,” says founder and chief executive Jane Root.

“Don’t skimp on the intellectual work, then use every trick in the book to make it look amazing.”

Nutopia’s mega-doc formula has quickly gained traction in the US and now, with a British show for Sky Atlantic, in the UK as well.

Its series for Discovery (How We Invented The World), History (Mankind: The Story Of All Of Us) and National Geographic (The 80s) are all large in scale and big on budget, and share a technique of dramatically retelling significant moments – whether it’s the raising of the Easter Island statues or the birth of the modern mobile phone.

But Root has no intention of sticking with producing for the traditional factual powerhouses, because she believes her formula can be applied very widely. “US cable networks are incredibly broad, and we’re analysing the mega-doc for their different demographics. It would be great to do something for ESPN around sports, or something for one of the big women’s networks. We’ve got those kinds of irons in the fire.”

She doesn’t want to give too much away, but the range of projects Nutopia is developing quickly becomes apparent. One long-term development, which she spoke of in her last Broadcast interview two years ago, will use CGI to show and vocalise the first few months of a baby’s life from the infant’s own perspective.

But isn’t there a danger that the relatively young, relatively small Nutopia could be stretching itself a bit thin? Not according to former BBC2 and Discovery boss Root, who is determined to diversify even further.

“When you’ve run a channel, it doesn’t feel that scary. We’re making a big, popular, fun fact ent show for Sky at the moment [it has yet to be announced], and exploring drama developments as well – pure drama, but a continuation of where we are now. We’re working with directors and writers and upping our game.”

The latter are major paid developments and the company is “already working with someone pretty amazing in Hollywood”.

Not everything Nutopia makes will be large scale. Root recalls Broadcast giving her a hard time as controller of BBC2 for ordering too many cookery and gardening shows, but she is still fascinated by the genres.

“Look at what Pat Llewellyn has done in that area, building a company such as Optomen. Those genres are in our DNA as much as mega-docs, which are just one bit of the TV landscape. It’s not our intention only to make them.”

Nutopia is about making money too. Its turnover leapt from £7.6m in 2010 to £14m in 2011, according to the Broadcast Indie Survey, and all but £1m of that was from outside the UK. The shows in production are set to propel it significantly higher than its 37th spot last year. Root believes PSB sensibilities are driving Nutopia’s commercial success, bolstered by a creative approach to advertising in the US.

“British programmers are very good at creating ideas with a bigger purpose – and that’s really attractive to advertisers too. The Bank of America sponsored America: The Story of Us and we’re now working with huge global sponsors who love the idea of being attached to that kind of project.”

Can she imagine a similar approach in the UK? Aren’t we a bit behind on sponsorship deals at the top level? Root isn’t so sure. “Look at the Britain’s Got Talent sponsorship, The X Factor and Corrie. You could see a scenario where, say, HSBC wants to ally itself to something really huge – might it have come on board if we’d made Great Britain: Our Story for ITV? Quite possibly.”

Instead, the show is being produced on a “cinematic scale” for Sky Atlantic and, with the help of distributor BBC Worldwide, Nutopia is looking to expand the Story Of Us format globally. “The Africa Channel is interested and it’s not impossible to imagine Russia: The Story Of Us, or China. Some places we’ll make them, some we’ll have partners, some we’ll sell the format,” Root says.

That open-mindedness is mirrored by her approach to back-end rights – traditionally a thorny topic for UK indies that specialise in making shows for US-based factual broadcasters. “It’s a challenge, admits Root. “Every broadcaster is becoming global so they want global rights. Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don’t – but we don’t have one business model. What’s crucial is: what job does the broadcaster need the programme to do?

“In the UK, there’s a sense that it’s a very regulated negotiation, that there’s a terms-of-trade expectation, and in the rest of the world there’s not. But you could end up hanging on to rights that might not be worth anything, or you could strike partnerships where you take a share. There’s definitely a sense of possibility in the US.”

The US is also where YouTube’s content ambitions are most advanced. While Nutopia’s work was being shown to advertisers on traditional broadcasters last month, the Google-owned video-sharing site was holding its own upfront for the first time.

At first glance, short-form web content and mega-docs couldn’t be further apart, but the ambition to push Nutopia into new spaces means Root is also thinking about new media opportunities. She has coined the phrase “YouTube Masterpieces” to describe Nutopia’s bold plan to tell important stories in two minutes – something she is convinced it can do: “It’s really not impossible.”

And that is Nutopia’s growth plan – to push into new areas, so that it straddles fact ent, formats and drama, as well as producing the large-scale factual projects it has become known for. The trail for Nat Geo’s The 80s hints at humour, nostalgia and social history, and Root is at pains to stress that there is nothing worthy, po-faced or esoteric about Nutopia.

“There’s a feeling in TV that history skews older, but look at what Hollywood does with historical action movies. Look at 300, for example – of course you can make history for wide audiences. I hope Great Britain: Our Story (w/t) will be a show for anyone who’s British and cares about that.

“Some British broadcasters underestimate their audiences – they think only a sliver of a university educated audience will be interested – but our shows are for everyone.”