Sky has unveiled two new doc series: The Lie That Exposed The Truth from Sandpaper Films, and Katie Price: Nothing to Hide from Louis Theroux’s Mindhouse.
The Lie That Exposed the Truth, headed to Sky Documentaries and NOW later this year, explores the impact of allegations of grooming in the town of Barrow by Ellie Williams. The story will be told over three episodes. It is made in co-production with Full Story Films and draws on Sky News’ Unreliable Witness podcast.
Henry Singer, EP at Sandpaper Films, said: “We’d previously made a film on the Rochdale grooming scandal, so when the Ellie Williams story broke, something didn’t sit right with us with how the press was telling it. It just felt there was more to it. That was the start of a three-and-a-half-year journey, navigating a tricky landscape to separate fact from fiction. In so doing, we discovered there was a much larger story to tell—not just in Barrow, but nationally. The abuse of young girls has been ignored and dismissed for far too long, and we hope the series does justice to their voices and sparks a long-overdue debate.”
Hayley Reynolds, head of documentary commissioning at Sky, added, “This series reexamines the narrative around Ellie Williams, using her case to uncover a broader and more troubling story, and expands the focus to include the experiences of other women and girls in Barrow. Sky Documentaries is thrilled to be working with the exceptional team at Sandpaper Films, whose work in this area is both authoritative and deeply respected, and in co-production with the newly formed Full Story Films. Over the three years this series has been in the making, the national conversation around grooming has grown increasingly charged and divisive, making this series all the more timely.”
The platform has also commissioned Mindhouse to produce a four-part series about Katie Price. The archive-led Katie Price: Nothing to Hide tells Price’s story since first appearing as Jordan on The Sun’s Page 3 in 1996.
Arron Fellows, co-founder and creative director at Mindhouse, “Katie’s 30 years in the spotlight have been truly extraordinary. This series doesn’t shy away from—in Katie’s own words—’the good, the bad and the ugly’; and this is an unexpected reappraisal of a woman many people feel they have already figured out.”
Reynolds added, “Katie Price is one of the defining figures of modern British fame, and her story offers a powerful lens on the culture that shaped it. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Paddy Wivell and Mindhouse Productions to continue Sky Documentaries’ reputation for raw and unfiltered documentaries about Britain’s biggest icons, whose stories also say something about the world we live in.”
Katie Price: Nothing to Hide will be available on Sky and NOW this summer.
