Entertainment

Tony Robinson Rewrites History for YouTube and TV With Radar Studios

Putri ArdhanaPublished 5d ago2 min readBased on 1 source
Tony Robinson Rewrites History for YouTube and TV With Radar Studios
Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

Tony Robinson is asking what if history had taken a different turn.

The British broadcaster and historian is teaming with Australia's Radar Studios on Tony Robinson Rewrites History, a project built for both YouTube and television, as reported by Deadline.

It is a double launch. One version is made for scrolling. The other is made for the schedule.

The YouTube channel arrives later this year. It will start with 12 half-hour episodes, a short format that suits an online audience dipping in and out. Viewers can watch one story in one sitting, without committing to a full evening's viewing.

Television comes next. Radar Studios will take a six-part, hour-long version to MIPCOM Cannes next month, the annual market in Cannes, France, where broadcasters and streamers shop for new programmes to buy and air. That means international buyers, meaning channels and platforms outside Australia, will get the first look. A sale there decides which countries see the series and in which slot.

The idea is simple. Each instalment revisits a defining historical event. Robinson picks out a single pivotal moment and explores how the outcome might have changed. The range is wide. Stories stretch from the Spanish Armada in the 16th century to the arrival of Covid-19.

The partnership is not new. Robinson has worked with Radar Studios parent WTFN Group in Australia for more than 15 years. That run includes Tony Robinson's Time Walks and Tony Robinson's Tour of Duty, two series made for Australian audiences.

Radar Studios itself is a recent creation. It was formed when WTFN merged its digital arm, Radar, with its distribution business, Fred Media, which sells finished programmes to other markets. The studio already runs Robinson's Time Travels history channel on YouTube, which has more than 40,000 subscribers.

For fans, this means two ways in. Quick episodes online first. Longer, hour-long cuts designed to be sold country by country. The history stays the same. The what-if changes everything.

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