Jewish producer wins Bafta for The Murder Detectives
Neil Grant, executive producer of ground-breaking Channel 4 programme, picks up award for Best Factual Series
Francine Wolfisz is the Features Editor for Jewish News.
A Jewish documentary producer has revealed his “immense pride” following a Bafta win for his ground-breaking series, The Murder Detectives.
Neil Grant, executive producer behind the Channel 4 series, which aired last November, picked up the coveted award for Best Factual Series at the glittering ceremony on Sunday night.
Filmed over 18 months, the crew were given unprecedented access to detectives investigating the apparently motiveless killing of Bristol teenager Nicholas Robinson.
Grant, 56, who is managing director of Films of Record, said he had been “astounded and amazed” by the critical reaction to the series, which also picked up two Bafta Craft awards for Dave Nath (director) and Ben Brown (editing).
Watch: The Murder Detectives wins Bafta for Best Factual Series
He said: “I’m immensely proud of the team, but it’s also important to remember this is essentially a story about parents who have lost a child. To celebrate that would be inappropriate, but if there is one less murder as a result of knife crime because of this documentary, then it’s a job well done.”
Grant added that the series was “a turn of the wheel for documentary making.”
He explained: “It’s a totally new way of making access driven documentary. The story of a murder investigation has never been told in real time before.”
Watch: The Murder Detectives trailer
The north London-based producer – who describes himself as “a JFS boy”, having been a former pupil, teacher and school governor at the Jewish secondary school in Kenton – also revealed a second series of The Murder Detectives is in the pipeline.
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