European, Oz broadcasters pick up Channel 5’s Dinosaur with Stephen Fry

Documentary series Dinosaur with Stephen Fry

Dinosaur with Stephen Fry, a push into natural history programming from Paramount-owned UK terrestrial Channel 5, has been picked up by broadcasters in Europe and Australia.

The 4×60’ factual series has been bought by RTL in Germany, FTV Prima in the Czech Republic, Telefonica in Spain and Australian pubcaster SBS.

The documentary series, produced by Tinopolis-owned Mentorn Media for Channel 5, chronologically tells the story of the dinosaurs’ 185 million years on Earth – from the dawn of the dinosaurs to their extinction. Presented by legendary actor, writer and dinosaur enthusiast Stephen Fry, the series immerses audiences in a new world, constructed with cutting-edge technology and featuring world-leading palaeontologists and scientists.

The show is distributed by London-based Passion Distribution which is also negotiating deals with a pan-regional Asian channel and a Japanese network.

The sales are part of a raft of unscripted sales secured by Passion ahead of MipTV in Cannes next month.

Channel 5 has itself acquired Engineering Reborn (8×60’), produced by Pioneer Productions for Passion Distribution.

The series explores the challenges behind the transformation of engineering marvels of the past. Further sales include Discovery (Spain), RTL (Netherlands), UR (Sweden), TVNZ (New Zealand) and SBS (Australia).

Entertainment series Men of West Hollywood (10×60’) follows six well-known male socialites, along with their boyfriends and girlfriends, as they live, work and party in West Hollywood.

The series has been picked up by MTV3 (Finland), TV4 (Sweden), DPG (Belgium), Foxtel (Australia) and Videotron in French-speaking Canada. It was originally produced by Get Me Out Productions and streamed on Crackle in the US.

Award-winning documentary Afghanistan: No Country For Women exposes the reality of life for women under Taliban rule. Over the course of six months, British-Iranian correspondent Ramita Navai investigated the Taliban’s treatment of women.

The documentary has been acquired by Channel 8 (Israel), YLE (Finland), TV2 (Norway), SVT (Sweden) and Telefonica (Spain).

Finally, Elizabeth: A Life Through The Lens (1×60’) explores the late queen’s relationship with the camera using rarely seen film and photographs to chart how her image changed through seven decades.

The documentary has been picked up by Channel 4 (UK), History Channel (Germany), Axess TV (Sweden) and True Royalty (USA). Produced by Unity House, the documentary is due to premiere in the UK this spring.