Industry

BossaNova Media has announced the global launch of the latest series to be generated by its Development Day pitching programme, which aims to fast-track the commissioning and production of factual projects with international potential.

"Days that Shocked the World", produced by BriteSpark Films (part of Argonon Group), revisits the worst disasters of the last 40 years, retelling each history-defining moment through eye-witness testimony and powerful archive footage in one-to-two parters around each anniversary. The series was originally pitched to broadcasters at BossaNova’s 2024 Development Day.

The catastrophic events explored in "Days that Shocked the World" include the disintegration of the Challenger Space Shuttle in 1986, just 73 seconds into its flight (1 x 60 mins); the Chernobyl meltdown the same year, which remains the world’s worst nuclear accident (2 x 60 mins); the ‘crash that killed Concorde’ in 2000, when Air France Flight 4590 crashed and exploded shortly after takeoff, killing 113 people (1 x 60 mins); the terrorist attacks of 9/11, which murdered almost 3,000 people, ignited the war on terror and changed forever the way we live (2 x 60 mins); and the Fukushima earthquake in 2011, which unleashed a tsunami that killed almost 20,000 people and triggered the largest nuclear disaster since Chernobyl (2 x 60 mins).

Paul Heaney, BossaNova’s CEO, said: “Our Development Days, which we originally saw as a ‘nice to have’ bit of window dressing, have become the engine room of BossaNova’s entire business. This year we’re celebrating the 10th anniversary of the concept, which has now proved its worth across two different companies, unlocking and unblocking a stream of fresh and topical projects that have gone on to perform well for all concerned. Days that Shocked the World is a prime example of the calibre of shows that we have helped our partners realise over the past 10 years — and that’s a great feeling, as well as great business.”

"Days that Shocked the Worl"d joins a string of successful shows, including "The Killer Clown: Murder on the Doorstep", "Con Girl", "The Flight Attendant Murders", "The Infinite Deep: Stories of Lost Submarines", "The Chameleon: The Killing of Ronald Platt", "Searching for Michael Jackson’s Zoo" and the "By Train", series to have been kickstarted by the Development Day initiatives, which were launched by BossaNova CEO Paul Heaney in 2015 under banner of his previous company, TCB Media Rights.

As in previous years, the 2025 event will take place in Central London in the run-up to MIPCOM in Cannes, timed to take advantage of the physical presence in Europe of many of the world’s top factual buyers and commissioners.