International nets go full steam ahead with Woodcut’s colourised documentaries

Britain’s Railway Empire in Colour reveals how Britain gave railways to the world

A host of international broadcasters have pre-bought forthcoming colourised documentaries about Britain’s railway empire and the Manhattan Project from UK indie Woodcut.

Britain’s Railway Empire in Colour (2×60′) reveals the story of how Britain gave railways to the world, from the first tentative experiments with steam power, through the boom years at home, to the exporting of this new technology to every corner of the globe.

Using leading experts and enthusiasts, including TikTok trainspotter Francis Bourgeois, plus extensive newly colourised archive, it has been pre-bought by Channel 4 (C4) in the UK, SBS in Australia and YLE in Finland.

The latter has also pre-bought The Manhattan Project in Colour (1×60′), as next month marks the 80th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which helped bring the Second World War to a close.

As well as C4 and SBS, TV Catalunya, UR in Sweden, Viasat World in CEE, Channel 8 in Israel and Mediawan-owned Toute L’Histoire in France will also air the doc, which tells the story of how the team led by Robert Oppenheimer developed technology never used before and built cities and factories that had never existed before the war.

Thousands of black and white photographs and hundreds of reels of film survive from those years and using the latest technology to transform rarely seen images, the Manhattan Project comes to life.

Distributed by Woodcut International, both documentaries employ extensive newly colourised archive and follow on from Woodcut’s Titanic in Colour, which premiered last year.

Jonathan Mayo is series producer, while Kate Beal serves as executive producer on both documentaries. Tom Adams joins Beal as executive producer on Britain’s Railway Empire in Colour.

Woodcut Media’s Mayo said: “The colourisation techniques and restoration of footage for both these historical docs makes the events very real. The Manhattan Project for example, is more than just the story of Robert Oppenheimer but an exploration of the pioneering work of the British nuclear scientists, the birth of the so-called ‘Atomic City’ of Oak Ridge that grew out of the Tennessee mud and the story of the thousands who worked there. To hear from those affected by the radiation from the Project’s US testing and from a Hiroshima survivor were stark reminders of the human cost of the atomic programme.”