Sky documentary orders include Italia 90 series with Paul Gascoigne

Lion TV’s Arctic From Above with Liz Bonnin

European pay TV operator Sky has commissioned six new documentaries, including a series about the 1990 Fifa World Cup in Italy featuring interviews with players including Paul Gascoigne and Roger Milla.

Produced by Blast! Films and Sky Studios, Italia 90 (3×60’) will reveal how the tournament was played in the crucible of a changing world, from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia. It is produced for Sky Documentaries.

Libby Are You Home Yet? (3×60’), which is produced by Candour TV in association with Sky Studios for Sky Crime, tells the story of Libby Squire, a 21-year-old student who was abducted and murdered walking home from a club in the UK city of Hull in 2019.

Sky History has greenlit Nutopia-produced The Royal Mob (4×60’), which tells the saga of the extended royal family that once ruled the whole of Europe, and how their loves, marriages and feuds dragged the continent into the world’s first total war and violent revolution.

Meanwhile, Arctic From Above with Liz Bonnin (3×60’) sees the wildlife biologist travel to one of Earth’s last great wildernesses to reveal fresh insights about its animals. The wildlife series is produced by Lion TV in association with Sky Studios for Sky Nature.

Produced by Raw in association with Discovery for Sky Documentaries, The Assassination of Olof Palme (4×60’) details the 1986 shooting of the Swedish prime minister on the snowy streets of Stockholm which began a 36-year search for his killer.

Finally, The Essex Murders (3×60’), also for Sky Documentaries, is about the killing of three men shot dead in a Range Rover in a country lane in Essex who were identified as the notorious Essex Boys, major players in the ecstasy trade fuelling Britain’s booming rave scene. The docuseries is produced by Expectation TV in association with Sky Studios.

Poppy Dixon, Sky’s director of documentaries and factual, said: “We’re incredibly proud to announce new additions to our slate ahead of our Up Next event. From uncovering the truth behind mysterious deaths in the UK and Europe, highlighting a sporting event that shaped football as we know it, to dramatic retellings of a history we all think we think we know – the new additions display the extraordinary breadth of content across our factual portfolio.”