Media Parents

September is synonymous with the back-to-school rush when reality slaps us hard in the face as summer memories fade and we resume our 9 to 5 timetable writes Senior Producer Jodie Chillery.

September is also Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, giving us an even harder dose of reality faced by an increasing number of families worldwide, many of whom would do anything to endure the routine slog of back-to-school preparation. So would you settle in on a cosy September evening for a 90 minute documentary on the subject?

You’d be forgiven for finding alternative viewing, but if Nile Rodgers and Joely Richardson can throw their weight behind it, then perhaps so can you. If you need further persuasion this opening paragraph from The Telegraph’s TV review might do it.

“A documentary about children with cancer might sound like punishingly grim viewing. A sort of misery safari for rubberneckers to wallow in tragedy. Kids Like Us (Sky/NOW) defies all such expectations. This feature-length film is uplifting, frequently funny and really rather beautiful.”

I wrote about my experience working on this project here (https://blog.mediaparents.co.uk/2024/03/5-minutes-with-senior-producer-jodie-chillery/) back at Easter. Now I can shout about it, and it is possibly the most shouted about film I’ve been involved with. When I started out on BBC’s Watchdog, long before social media and when BBC1 primetime consumer affairs shows regularly courted 8 million viewers, I used to get a bit excited, butterflies as the title music rolled and we went live to the nation’s households.

As the years went by, traditional TV audiences diminished along with the novelty of my career, that buzz I felt as a fledgling runner never quite replicated. Last week, Kids Like Us, a 90 minute feature documentary produced by Echo Velvet in association with Children With Cancer UK and available now on SKY/NOW TV was played out on Leicester Square’s IMAX screen with over 700 people in attendance. A VIP red carpet event sponsored by pladis Global  and hosted by Cineworld was a spectacle that the factual documentary genre rarely enjoys. If September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month, what more awareness could you want with Nile Rodgers, Sophie Capewell, Ashley Cain, Tracey Ann Oberman and Brentford manager Thomas Frank all making an appearance.

Jodie Chillery's profile: Jodie Chillery Senior Producer (also available now for job opportunities!) Jodie has had work through Media Parents and now wants more! To contact Jodie log in to Media Parents and click here: https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4945/jodie-chillery

This glitzy affair must surely be a career highlight worthy of that kind of juvenile excitement first felt back on Watchdog. Yet, amongst the glitz and glam of the evening, something way more significant occurred, perhaps the real career highlight and most definitely the reason you should tune in.

One of our contributors hugged me and whispered “Thank you, you’ll never know how grateful we are for giving us a voice, filming with you has been life changing for all of us.” I don’t recall a contributor saying anything quite like that to me before, not with so much emotion for sure. For me it cements the importance of documentary programming and if we were able to give these kids a voice, they now need to be listened to, it’s the least they deserve. Available now Kids Like Us on SKY/NOW TV.

Jodie Chillery Senior Producer (also available now for job opportunities!) Jodie has had work through Media Parents and now wants more! To contact Jodie log in to Media Parents and click here: https://www.mediaparents.co.uk/freelancers/4945/jodie-chillery