How to Make Great Documentaries
A masterclass in making Great Documentaries with the Director of Putin vs The West. Tim Stirzaker, the Series Director of the BBC Documentary Series, is in conversation with Vitaly Shevchenko, host of the podcast 'Ukrainecast'.
One of Tim Stirzaker's first jobs in television was as the researcher on the prequel to the series, ‘Putin, Russia and the West,’ which broadcast in 2012. Since then, he has made programmes about the Iraq War, the Arab Spring, and the history of US elections; and spent two years filming behind the scenes in the houses of parliament for ‘Inside the Commons’ and ‘Meet the Lords’. More recently, he worked with Series Producer Norma Percy on the award-winning ‘Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil’ and ‘Trump Takes on the World,’ which followed the same style as ‘Putin vs the West’ in interviewing only the leaders, ministers and officials who were there for key moments in history.
Vitaly Vitaly Shevchenko is originally from Zaporizhzhia in eastern Ukraine. He first joined the BBC in Kyiv in 2001, initially focusing on monitoring the media in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Later, he moved to the UK, where he became the head of the Russia monitoring department in 2016. While at BBC Monitoring, Vitaly’s interests primarily included analysing propaganda and debunking disinformation in the Russian media. After Russia first invaded Ukraine in 2014, Vitaly became more involved in broadcasting.
This masterclass took place on 2 May 2023.