EXCLUSIVE: Whitney director Kevin Macdonald is to direct an ITV doc profiling the ferocious floods that have hit the UK in recent years.
In It Takes A Flood, Academy Award-winning director Macdonald, who was also behind a recent ITV Coronavirus doc, will move from London, where historic levels of rain battered the capital last year, to a historic town in which visceral phone footage captured floodwater rampaging through its defences.
As the challenges of flooding mount, the film also features a powerful beacon of hope in Ravi Singh, who runs an international disaster relief charity.
The show, which is being produced by Black Rio indie Docsville, was unveiled today by UK public broadcaster ITV as part of its Climate Action plan, with the Cop 26 climate conference set to get underway in two weeks in Macdonald’s Glasgow birthplace. That plan also includes a Joanna Lumley doc following ‘Human Swan’ Sacha Dench and shows on eco-friendly homes, gardens and the island of Orkney.
Macdonald said: “With more extreme weather coming our way as a result of climate change, we believe it’s vital to understand the impact of flooding here and now in the UK, at such a crucial juncture for the world.”
The doc is Macdonald’s second ITV film in less than two years, following last year’s 2020: The Story Of Us. Commissioners are ITV Controller of Factual Jo Clinton-Davis and Head of Factual Entertainment Sue Murphy.
Clinton-Davis said: “Climate change is a huge issue but Kevin Macdonald addresses it through the deeply personal stories of those bearing the impact here in Britain. He brings the issue to our doorsteps in a way that is shocking but relatable and involving.”