EXCLUSIVE: Channel 4’s landmark documentary series about former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has been put on ice indefinitely.
Deadline understands The World According to Paul Dacre [working title] was derailed after filming was impacted due to Covid-19 delays and scheduling challenges. There is no suggestion the delay is due to editorial differences of opinion and a Channel 4 spokesman said the show has been “paused.”
The landmark from My Daughter’s Killer indie Rogan Productions was unveiled with fanfare three years ago and slated to launch in 2021.
Described as “telling the extraordinary story of how [Dacre] shaped the Mail as the voice of Middle England,” the former Editor was due to be interviewed extensively for the doc.
The show was an example of the way in which Channel 4 Chief Content Officer Ian Katz had set about ordering programs that negated accusations of left-wing bias directed at the commercial pubcaster.
Dacre is an arch-right-wing Brexiteer who was Editor of the right-wing Daily Mail for 26 years, overseeing major political events and accruing the paper a huge, dedicated readership. He is seen as one of the most influential British newspaper editors of all time.
Dacre left in 2018 and is currently Editor-in-Chief of DMG Media, which publishes The Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and the Metro. He was also in the running to be Chair of broadcasting regulator Ofcom and his hugely controversial run was covered extensively in the press, as it would have given him, amongst other things, regulatory influence over the BBC, an institution to which he was heavily critical.
