David DeHaney to close factual indie Proper Content, blaming ‘dramatically’ changing market

Proper Content feature-length doc Kidnapped By My Mum

David DeHaney has announced his intention to close Proper Content, the UK indie production company he set up in 2016, blaming market conditions.

The company will appoint an administrator shortly, after which it will cease trading.

“This has been a very difficult decision,” said DeHaney. “We have had nearly 10 years of making some of the industry’s most talked-about shows; entertaining programmes with social purpose. And that is exactly what I set out to do. But we want to do more, so much more, and the current environment does not support us in making that step-change.”

The company’s credits include hospital three-parter 999: The Critical List for Channel 4; eight-part series The Changemakers for Paramount Plus; Chris Packham: Is it Time to Break the Law? for Channel 4; Mums on Strike, the 5 series in which families try to cope when the person doing the most steps aside; and two seasons of The King’s Guard for 5, following the British Army’s Household Division in the run-up to King Charles’ coronation.

David DeHaney

Proper is also behind Grierson Award-winning feature documentary Suicidal: In Our Own Words; Grierson and Royal Television Society Award-nominated Anorexic for 5; and Channel 4’s The School That Tried to End Racism, which won a Grierson, a Venice TV Award, a Rose d’Or and a Bafta.

More recently, the company delivered the BBC documentary P Diddy: Rise & Fall, and the BBC feature-length documentary Kidnapped By My Mum. Proper Content is continuing to fulfil existing commitments, including a new surgery series for 5 and a luxury series for Channel 4 due to air later this year.

“We are extremely proud of what we have achieved with Proper Content,” adds DeHaney. “We have held up a lens to society in so many different ways, and to such a variety of audiences. As a growing indie, we couldn’t have done more. Yet, for a company like ours, at this stage in its development, going to the next stage is incredibly challenging. There simply isn’t the commissioning risk or the time or space to let companies stretch their wings in new ways. And as a result, companies get ‘stuck’ – which doesn’t feel like a good or a creative place to be.

“The reality is that the market has changed dramatically in recent years. Commissioning budgets have tightened, development cycles have lengthened and the opportunities for growing indies to scale have become increasingly limited. Those pressures have affected many companies across the sector and have undoubtedly contributed to the position we find ourselves in today.”