From C21 Media, Niko Franks. 10th January, 2023.
TriForce Productions in the UK is developing its one-off documentary for ITV, Handle with Care: Jimmy Akingbola, as a returning format focusing on sensitive subjects.
Handle With Care: Jimmy Akingbola aired in November last year on ITV and traced the journey of Akingbola, who, at the age of two, was uprooted from his Nigerian family and fostered by a white British family who raised him alongside their birth children.
Akingbola (Bel-Air) is a co-founder of TriForce and also hosts the company’s ITV panel show Sorry, I Didn’t Know.
Fraser Ayres, MD and co-founder of TriForce, told C21 the producers are looking to tell other personal stories and lived experiences of diverse personalities in the potential returning factual strand Handle with Care.
“We’ve spoken to ITV and we’re in development at the moment for a strand on different subjects,” Ayres said, adding that individuals are attached to the project whilst declining to reveal more details.
The actor, writer and showrunner added that the producer would continue to approach difficult subjects that in other hands might be framed in a “clickbait-y” with consideration and show them in a more positive light.
It comes after TriForce’s development slate was given a financial boost in late 2022 after it was chosen as one of the prodcos to receive backing from UK commercially funded public service broadcaster Channel 4’s Emerging Indie Fund, which will see it receive a range of support and guidance to help supercharge its business.
TriForce focuses on developing diversity and inclusivity (D&I) on- and off-camera and, via its not-for-profit arm TriForce Creative Network, is behind Dandi, described as the one-stop D&I support service for the entertainment industry that represents a database of more than 25,000 people.
Shows Dandi has supported include Bridgerton, Gangs of London, I Hate Suzie, Killing Eve, Stath Lets Flats, Taskmaster and Trigger Point.