BBC2 takes on Slave doc series

Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade

BBC2 in the UK has acquired a documentary on the transatlantic slave trade, fronted by Hollywood star and human rights activist Samuel L Jackson, and commissioned a special four-part version.

Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade sheds new light on 400 years of human trafficking, when millions of enslaved Africans were shipped to the Americas by Western European slave traders.

The doc is a Canada/UK coproduction between Toronto-based Associated Producers and London-based Cornelia Street Productions in association with Canuck pubcaster the CBC, Documentary Channel in Canada and Epix in the US.

Premiering in the US as a six-part series, the doc has been re-versioned to a 4×60′ series for BBC2 in collaboration and with approval from the producers. It was acquired for the BBC from Fremantle by Patrick Holland, controller of BBC2, and Mandy Chang, commissioning editor and head of factual acquisitions.

The exec producers are Jackson and his wife LaTanya Richardson Jackson, alongside Eli Selden, Rob Lee, Simcha Jacobovici, Ric Esther Bienstock, Sarah Sapper and Yaron Niski.

Fremantle will distribute both the 6×60′ and the 4×60′ versions of the series internationally.