BBC to air new Kanye West doc, podcast
February 15, 2023
The BBC has announced that it will air a new documentary exploring the life and career of Kanye West AKA Ye.
We Need to Talk about Kanye (w/t) will air on BBC Two and will be fronted by BAFTA award-winning investigative journalist Mobeen Azhar, following on from his acclaimed exploration of Britney Spears’ conservatorship in The Battle for Britney.
Unfolding against the backdrop of Ye’s 2024 election campaign, and at a time when his behaviour has sparked outrage and a re-evaluation of his place in popular culture, the one-off documentary follows Azhar as he attempts to understand the complex journey that led Ye to become one of the most famous and creatively successful artists of his generation. But more recently, to condemnation and notoriety.
We Need to Talk about Kanye is produced by Emerging Indie of the Year, Forest for BBC Music and distributed by Abacus Media Rights. The Executive Producers are Catey Sexton and Jez Lee, the Producer is Laura Kaye, and the Producer/Director is Stefan Mattison. It was commissioned by Jonathan Rothery, Head of Popular Music for BBC Music and Rachel Davies is the Commissioning Executive.
The transmission date of the documentary will be announced in the coming months.
An 8 part podcast series The Kanye Story will also accompany the documentary. Produced by Forest Sounds for BBC Sounds each episode will invite new guests, who can bring an insight into Kanye’s life and dig deeper into his place in culture; starting with the early stratospheric success to the condemnation of later years.