Emmy-Winning Factual Specialist Lucy van Beek Launches Tailfeather Productions With Netflix, Apple Commissions

Alex Ritman
·2 min read

Lucy van Beek, the award-winning factual TV and film specialist, has launched her own production outfit, Tailfeather Productions.

The company, whose focus will be premium specialist factual documentaries and series for streaming platforms, broadcasters and theatrical release, launches with two major commissions, “Alexander: The Making of a God” for Netflix and “Born to Be Wild” for Apple TV+.

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Van Beek, who trained with the BBC Natural History Unit, has been behind shows including “Britain From Above” for the BBC and National Geographic’s “China’s Megatomb Revealed.” Across her career she’s won seven Emmy Awards, a BAFTA, the New York Film Festival Creative Award, and numerous science and natural history awards.

“My mission with Tailfeather is to use the latest research and technology combined with journalistic rigour and compelling storytelling, to craft specialist factual experiences that will resonate with audiences,” said van Beek. “We want to unlock the past in new ways and to examine the natural world using the very best tools and latest research available to us.”

The first commission for Tailfeather Productions is in association with van Beek’s former employer Lion Television to create “Alexander: The Making of a God,” co-executive produced with Lion TV’s Nick Catliff. To tell Alexander’s story, the six-part docuseries incorporates contemporary accounts and fact-based archaeology, much of which is based on ongoing excavations being undertaken by Greek archaeologist Calliope Limneos-Papakosta in Alexandria, Egypt. The series premieres globally on Netflix on Jan. 31.

The second commission, “Born to Be Wild,” is a co-production with Offspring Films for Apple TV. The six-part nature documentary series follows six rare young animals over several years as they are brought up in the human world and eventually returned to their homelands to help save their species. Using the latest camera and tracking technology, the series follows the journey of a Savanna elephant calf, two young cheetahs, a ring-tailed lemur pup, a moon bear cub, Iberian lynx kits and orphaned African penguins, from either birth or their first few months of life, through to their release into the wild.

Other credits for van Beek, whose career began working on David Attenborough’s “Song of the Earth,” include “Riders of the Storm,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “Modern Masters,” “Stephen Hawking’s Search for a New Earth,” “The Crusades” and the global ratings smash “The Wonderful World of Puppies.”

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