It is the home of 'Real Story With Fiona Bruce', BBC One's early evening current affairs programme, and won the best home current affairs award in the 2004 RTS awards for a report by John Sweeney on cot death mothers falsely accused of killing their babies. As well as its regular strand, Real Story also provides specials for BBC One, notably, 'Soham: the Real Story' and 'Nurseries Undercover: the Real Story', both of which had significant impact and achieved the highest audiences for BBC current affairs in successive years. The other mainstay of the unit is File on 4, Radio 4's flagship investigative programme which has been delivering hard-hitting current affairs from Manchester for the past twenty seven years. The quality of File on 4's journalism has been honoured in recent years with a Sony Gold award and the prestigious Peabody award. For BBC Two, the unit is currently working on a series on Britain's compensation culture, No Win, No Fee, and last year produced Bee in Your Bonnet, a series about grassroots campaigners which tied in with the BBC's i-Can website. Previously, the unit had produced gritty, fly-on-the-wall investigations for BBC Two including, 'Real Estates' and 'Trouble Up North'. It also has a strong relationship with BBC Three and has produced everything from 'Gangland Manchester' to experiential documentaries like 'Blair for a Day'. In addition, 'Liquid Assets' has just completed its final series after thirty eight shows and was BBC Three's longest running factual show. Its team, however, will continue to make other cross genre programmes for Factual Entertainment like 'The History of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen', 'Top 50 Movers and Shakers', and a new series for BBC Three called 'Fantasy'. NCA is also working on a collaborative drama written with BBC Scotland in Glasgow. Current Affairs in Manchester also produces documentaries for BBC Four, which have included The Situation Room, Kashmir: Paradise Lost, presented by Sir Mark Tully, and, most recently, No More Victims. |
