Banijay Rights, the leading distribution arm of Banijay Group, announces today a new development deal with factual specialist Touchdown Films, founded by filmmaker and producer John Osborne (Hillsborough Remembered, The Story of Skinhead). The first title to come from the deal is a special one-off documentary produced by Touchdown Films that tells the story of the Apollo 8 space mission, which has its 50th anniversary in December 2018.

Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed the World is an archive-driven documentary directed by John Osborne, that relives the first ever manned mission to the moon. The Apollo 8 journey captured the first ever colour image of the Earth from space and reshaped how we viewed ourselves forever. The documentary contains interviews w ith key people directly involved in the Apollo 8 mission and the environmental campaigns that followed.

As part of the first-look deal, Banijay Rights and Touchdown Films are also working together to develop and produce returnable factual series in the history, crime and celebrity genres and already have several projects in development with UK and US networks.

Emily Elisha, Head of Factual, Banijay Rights, said: “Working with Touchdown Films has given us a really exciting opportunity to develop programmes which we believe will have broad international appeal – especially those linked to landmark events and anniversaries. Touchdown’s John Osborne has renowned expertise in unearthing previously unseen archive. Add to that his ability to secure strong contributors who can speak personally about the events featured and we believe we have a winning formula.”

John Osborne, Founder and Managing Director, Touchdown Films, said: “’I’m excited to be working with Emily and the Banijay Rights team. Our goal at Touchdown Films is to create factual television with global appeal and Banijay shares that ambition. Apollo 8: The Mission That Changed the World epitomizes the kind of project that we’re looking forward to working on together.”