Wall to Wall and Illumina Digital have teamed up for the first time to produce a website that encourages members of the public descended from former British Empire colonies to share their family histories.
The site ties into Empire's Children, Wall to Wall's series for Channel 4 in which celebrities including Jenny Eclair, Adrian Lester and former SDP leader David Steel trace their family history. As well as edited versions of the 60-minute documentaries, the site hosts 10 specially filmed mini-documentaries, each containing five or six clips telling the stories of people whose families came from imperial territories including Malawi and Guyana.
It also offers users a framework to upload their own stories through video, text and images, including photographs and original documents - linked to a map of the 67 Empire countries - in an attempt to document what Wall to Wall managing director Alex Graham called "living history".
The project builds on the company's previous site for C4's World War I documentary series Not Forgotten, which was accompanied by a "digital war memorial". Graham said personal narratives lent themselves to the multimedia approach because they encouraged viewers to get involved to relate their shared experiences.
"As a producer, you crave a rich, deep, long-lasting relationship with your audience," Graham said. "I work in TV because I want to communicate with people; in the past, we just dumped this stuff on air and hoped someone would watch it, but now we have the possibility of a dialogue."
The web element of the series emerged some months into planning, but he expected it to play a much bigger role in the early stages on future programmes. One project in development could even start on the web, he said. "We're moving into a world now in which companies such as Illumina and Wall to Wall will talk to each other a lot more - even before we go to a broadcaster with a subject."
Illumina Digital managing director Andrew Chitty added: "Everyone's very excited about UGC, but it's crucial to blend it with the editorial and narrative elements of TV. When you do, stories can arise that you could even use as the starting point of another TV programme." The companies plan to keep the project going after the series ends. One idea floated by Chitty is to involve children talking to their grandparents about their memories.
