Northern Heart Films lands BBC commission

Preston-based Northern Heart Films has been nominated for special recognition after completing its first commissions for the BBC.

The newly-launched business initially created a short video, A Kingdom United, to celebrate coronavirus heroes. When the film featured on BBC Breakfast, an executive producer within the children's department was inspired to get in touch.

This resulted in Northern Heart creating two films for CBBC and CBeebies about life in lockdown. They were compiled using home-shot footage and edited from home.

Natasha Hawthornthwaite, creative director, said: "We wanted to make films that represent what children are thinking and feeling during the lockdown. The concept was very much about creating a piece of work that shows how we are all isolating but still very much together."

Following broadcast on TV, social media, and iPlayer, the two films were then selected for the Prix Jeunesse International Special Achievement Awards.

An executive producer at BBC Children’s said: "These two films are so lovely, they really sum up what we’re all going through. Everyone is so pleased and they have been a big hit with our audiences."

Scott Bradley, head of production, said: "We were delighted to be contacted by the BBC to produce a couple of short films for them, we’re still a very new business and this was an opportunity too good to turn down even though producing films in lockdown sounded like an impossible task.”

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