Production
company Bigger Picture Country United Kingdom | Release date 2011 (2011) Initial release 2010 | |
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Similar 1, Afternoon of a Champion, Journey to Le Mans, Senna, Racing Dreams | ||
Grand prix the killer years
Grand Prix: The Killer Years is a television documentary made in 2010 for the BBC by Manchester-based film producers Bigger Picture. It was first aired on 27 March 2011 on BBC Four. Repeat broadcasts followed on BBC Two and BBC Four.
Contents
The film tells the story of Grand Prix racing in the 1960s and 70s where mechanical failure, lethal track design, fire and incompetence led to the death of many young drivers. Among the interviewees contributing to the film are Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, and John Surtees.
The film later went on to be released on DVD.
Distributed by BBC WorldWide by November 2014 the film had been broadcast in 28 countries. The film was shown in the USA on the Discovery network as part of a series with 'Deadliest Crash', 'Madness on Wheels' and 'Madness in the Desert', all made by the same producer. In November 2014 the original producer of the film J L Matthews compiled the interviews into a hardback book of the same name published and distributed by Bigger Picture [projects] Ltd. The managing director of Bigger Picture coined the phrase 'Tinsel Tuesday' to promote the book on social media in the same week as Black Friday.