SamiaBroadcast
Programmes · In development

Written before they are filmed.

Five strands are in development. Each one below is an intention: what we want to make, who it is for, and what has to be true before it is released. None has a release date. When one does, it will be on this page and on Watch before anywhere else.

Suggest a subject ↗The five strands ↓
A drawn clapperboard, its striped stick raised, marked Samia Broadcast, in development 2026; the board reads strand places, take one, scene not yet, year 2027.

The strands

Five strands,
and for whom.

Five strands, in the order we expect to release them. Three carry the work of other divisions of the house to the screen; two are Broadcast's own. The boxes on the right are the conditions a programme must meet before it goes out.

Strand 01Broadcast's ownIn development

Documentaries: places and makers

Half-hour films about a place and the people who keep it working. A bakery at four in the morning. A public library on a Saturday. A repair shop that fixes what other people throw away. A river town and the trades along its bank. Filmed where the work happens, over days rather than hours, with the consent of everyone on screen.

Who it is for: anyone who likes watching skilled people work and wants to know how a place holds together. No narrator telling you what to feel; the people and the place do the talking.

Know a place we should film? ↗

Before it is released

  • A named person is responsible for the film and signs it
  • Every factual claim in the narration has a source in the programme notes
  • Everyone who appears agreed in advance and knows how the film will be used
  • A second person has checked the transcript against the recording
Strand 02Broadcast's ownIn development

Interviews: people doing difficult, useful work

One person, one long conversation, published whole with a transcript. Not the famous and not the loud: nurses and midwives, teachers, water engineers, farmers, librarians, translators, the people who repair things. We send the areas we want to cover in advance, never the questions, and we film in the person's own place wherever we can.

Who it is for: people who want to hear how work is actually done by someone who does it, at a length that lets them finish a thought.

How an interview is made, and who we want to talk to ↗

Before it is released

  • The transcript is checked against the recording by a second person
  • The person has seen the cut and may correct a fact, though not a view
  • No answer is cut to mean something it did not mean
  • Nobody pays to appear, and nobody is paid to
Strand 03From the NewsroomIn development

Explainers on film: the Newsroom on screen

The Newsroom's explainers, drawn and narrated. One question, the documented answer, and no more than the written piece can prove. The written explainer and its source list stay linked under the film, so anyone can check the film against the page it came from.

Who it is for: people who would rather understand one thing properly in ten minutes than hear about twenty things in passing.

The Newsroom's explainers desk ↗

Before it is released

  • The written explainer is published first, with its sources
  • The film says nothing the written piece does not say
  • Drawn sequences are obviously drawn; nothing is presented as footage that is not
  • A second person has checked the narration against the sources
Strand 04From Samia LearnIn development

Lessons: Samia Learn on film

Learn's lessons as short films: about sixty seconds for the one number or date worth remembering, and longer lessons where a subject needs the room. Drawn in the house style, narrated by a person, with the claim log under every film so a teacher can see what was checked and against what.

Who it is for: students, teachers and anyone who wants the short, checked version first and the long version within reach.

Samia Learn ↗

Before it is released

  • The claim log is complete: every claim, what it was checked against, the result
  • Checked twice, by two different people
  • The lesson note is published on Learn with the film
  • Nothing in the film is there to be memorable at the expense of being right
Strand 05From Samia KidsPilot in development

Films for children: Samia Kids, animated

Short animated films with Samia Kids' star character, about honesty, patience, courage, generosity, curiosity and the joy of making things. A pilot is in development; there is no date beyond that, and we will not invent one. Every voice belongs to a real person.

Who it is for: children, and the adults who watch with them. Kids' rules apply to every frame: no advertising to children, no manipulative design, no data collection.

Samia Kids: the films ↗

Before it is released

  • No advertising, no tracking, nothing designed to keep a child watching
  • A note for parents on what the film teaches and how
  • Every voice is a real person's; nothing is generated
  • Samia Kids' editors have read the script

When one is released

Seven things
on every page.

The film is the smallest part of the page. The rest is there so you can check it, quote it and teach from it.

  1. 1
    The film, playable on the page, with captions.
  2. 2
    The strand and the running time, and the question the programme set out to answer.
  3. 3
    Who made it: the people who wrote, filmed, cut and checked it, by name.
  4. 4
    The transcript, every word, checked against the recording.
  5. 5
    The sources for every factual claim in the narration, numbered.
  6. 6
    A corrections line with the date of any change, and the address to write to: [email protected].
  7. 7
    How it was made: days on location, what was staged and captioned as such, what was left out and why.

Suggest a subject

A place, a maker,
or a person?

Write to [email protected] with the subject line Programme idea. Say who or where, why it is worth half an hour of someone's evening, and how to reach them. Two paragraphs is plenty.

We read every suggestion. We cannot reply to all of them, we do not pay for introductions, and we will never film anyone who has not agreed to it.

Write to the editors ↗

A place

Somewhere that works because of the people in it, and that most people never see from the inside.

A maker

Someone who makes or repairs real things well, and can talk about it while their hands are busy.

A question

Something you have always wanted explained properly, in ten minutes, with the sources shown.

A person

Someone doing difficult, useful work who deserves a long conversation rather than a soundbite.

Release notes

Hear when the first
programme lands.

One email when a programme is released, and nothing else. No weekly newsletter, no offers, no reminders.