Award Winning International Programming

MAP TV

Michael Attwell Productions Ltd. is an independent television production company based in the United Kingdom and trading as MAP TV.
We make television programmes for broadcasters, principally but not exclusively in the UK. We make mostly factual documentaries, both single feature-length documentaries and series. Our principal subject areas to date have been current affairs, crime, arts, history, archaeology, and human interest.
We have made programmes for the BBC, Channel Four, Five, and Sky. We have also made programmes for ZDF (Germany) and Discovery Europe, and our programmes are distributed worldwide, having been screened for example on PBS and WE in the United States, and in France, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Russia, etc.
The company was founded in 2001.

Work

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The Week They Elected the Pope

Channel 4

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9/11: A Tale of Two Towers

Five/ZDF/Discovery

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The Family That Defied Hitler

Five

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Hanging El Greco

2-parter for Five

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Myra: The Making of a Monster

Five

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How to Live Beyond 100

BBC One

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United by 9/11

Sky One

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Forbidden Love: I Married a Crossdresser

Sky

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Skin Deep: The Story of Sandra Laing

More4/The History Channel

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The Plane Crash

Channel4/Discovery

What the critics say

  • '(A) perfectly pitched documentary...  eschews deference and sobriety for shrewd editing...the film captures both the pomp and the mundanity at the heart of the papal electoral process, while gallantly avoiding a patronising tone.'

    The Week They Elected the Pope (from The Times)

  • 'Underpinned by a steady, questioning intelligence' 'This is an important piece of television; an uneasy, ambiguous cogitation that leaves us questioning not merely society, but ourselves'

    Myra: The Making of a Monster (from The Times)

  • 'There is nothing more satisfying to the art-lover than going behind the scenes of an important show, and no one has done it better than producer/director Michael Attwell'

    Hanging El Greco (from the Daily Mail)

  • 'Considered and ultimately very moving appreciation of the suffering endured in the wake of that terrible day'

    United by 9/11 (from Time Out London)

  • 'Absolutely riveting' 'Probably the most powerful of the many anniversary programmes'

    9/11: A Tale of Two Towers (from the Financial Times)

  • 'An unmissable report' 'This [anniversary programme] stands out'

    The Diana Years (from the Sunday Mirror)

  • 'Surprisingly sober' 'well researched'

    Who Killed Diana? (from The Sunday Times)
Michael Attwell
Michael Attwell is the managing director of MAP TV.
He was the chairman of BAFTA, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which awards the British Academy Awards, from 2002 to 2004. He is chairman of the National Organisation for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (UK) and a trustee of the Topsy Foundation UK.
Michael was formerly a senior commissioning executive at Channel 4, the BBC, and Five. Amongst the many successful programmes he commissioned were: Equinox, Big Breakfast, Two Fat Ladies, Nick Broomfield's Heidi Fleiss: Hollywood Madam, and Anne Frank Remembered (which won an Oscar and the International Emmy). He pioneered property programmes in the UK with Hot Property and the BAFTA-nominated House Doctor, and he established Five's much-celebrated Arts programmes.
He set up MAP TV in 2001.
Michael Attwell
​Douglas Chirnside is a director of MAP TV. He is a writer, producer and director. He is also a published author and lectures on media, television and advertising, for example at Warwick Business School.
As a freelance indie producer he created the first of the hugely successful ‘authored history’ series in the UK and USA, Henry VIII, winning the Indie Doc of the Year Award. 
He ran his own production company for 20 years where he wrote/produced/directed documentaries featuring over 1000 contributors and shot on 4 continents for Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky, Bravo and Discovery USA with overseas sales to 50+ territories. His controversial 13 episode series, Plastic Fantastic and Sex & Shopping, were Channel 5’s biggest UK-commissioned hits in any genre. The prison series CONS remains Sky’s best-ever reviewed documentary series with 19 ‘picks of the day’. He has also created gameshow and crime drama formats and written crime drama.
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Get in touch

email: info@maptv.co.uk

Tel No: + 44 (0) 7811 361 304

Company No. 4267885

VAT No. 787 9282 56

Privacy Statement

Our Privacy and Data Protection policy is governed by the following principles:
We only collect, handle, process, store, record, use, transport or retain personal data:

  • respecting the privacy of individuals

  • ensuring the data is held securely, giving access only to those who require it for the conduct of our business

  • never giving access to third parties (except broadcasters directly responsible for the broadcast of any programme) without consent

  • retaining such data only for as long as it is legally required (usually a maximum of six years)

  • all employees or contractors are made aware of our Privacy and Data Protection policy and contractually bound by it.

For the purposes of clarity, in the event that a member of the public agrees to take part in one of our television programmes, we collect personal information about them for the purpose of including them in the programme. In that case, the purpose of the programme is always fully explained to them and their legal consent to participating in the programme is given by their signing a contract (‘a consent form’) with MAP TV. Any personal information obtained in the making of the programme is subject to the same conditions as outlined above.
As far as anyone working for MAP TV or providing services to it is concerned, the same conditions also apply, the data usually being held for a maximum of six years in order to meet our legal obligations Anyone can ask to see what data we hold about them and to require us to change incorrect information. If we are no longer legally bound to hold their data, they can also require us to delete it.

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