I am working on a new BBC 3 documentary series being made by the award winning independent television production company Silver River, following young people from across the UK who have of illness and would be keen to share their experiences with us. The series has been commissioned with BBC Learning and will be accompanied by an online campaign to further awareness and offer advice. I hope to speak to a young person (aged between 16 to 30) who suffers from type 2 diabetes.
My main aim is to present an honest, non-judgmental look at an issue that causes so much negative thoughts and views in the national media. I am really keen to make a sensitive and thoughtful documentary series, giving a voice to a group of young people from across the country who are feeling the impact of their health in their day-to-day lives. We don’t want to reinforce stereotypes or present naive or ill-informed explanations.
The BBC 3 audience is younger than most of the other BBC channels – teenagers through to those in their twenties – but many other people outside of this age range watch it too, so the programme will aim to appeal to them also. The tone of the programme will be to tackle serious issues in an accessible and informative way and we want to treat them honestly and realistically.
I also feel it is very important to highlight that we have a very strong duty of care towards our contributors, especially on topics of sensitive nature like this. We are very keen to hear and address any concerns that you may have so that we can work together to ensure we do no damage to any people who feature in the programmes. It would be great to be able to meet you and discuss these issues further – even if ultimately you decide it isn’t for you, it would be useful for us to be aware of your concerns so that we can incorporate them in our approach and have them reflected in the final programme. We will have measures in place for our contributors to have support and assistance before, during and after filming.
My email is harjeet.chhokar@silverriver.tv. I would welcome the opportunity to have a further chat with and give you more details about the documentary series.
Thank you so much for your help and I look forward to speaking to you soon.