The People's Piazza documentary

Download "The People's Piazza documentary on BBC2" press release (PDF)

TV historian, presenter and StoryTrails Executive Producer David Olusoga’s companion documentary film to StoryTrails, The People’s Piazza, A History of Covent Garden will be broadcast on BBC Two on Sunday 13 November at 9pm following the film’s premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in October as part of the LFF For Free programme. StoryTrails, the UK’s largest immersive storytelling experience has been travelling across the UK this summer, from Omagh to Dundee and Swansea to Slough. Showcasing hundreds of local stories and hidden histories using exciting new interactive technologies, StoryTrails has been commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK.

Telling the story of one of the nation’s best-known public spaces, the Covent Garden Piazza, from its early years as a playground for the aristocracy, through decline and dereliction to eventual rebirth, TV historian, presenter and StoryTrails Executive Producer David Olusoga steps back in time to explore the iconic piazza’s tumultuous history. Over four centuries the Covent Garden Piazza has been a market, a meeting place, and a site of protest, performance and renewal. In this documentary David Olusoga explores its history, and with the help of a host of experts and eyewitnesses, conjures up the ghosts of the past – market traders, orphans, artists and activists.

Co-produced with StoryFutures Academy the National Centre for Immersive Storytelling, the team behind StoryTrails and the BFI, the innovative film weaves together a wealth of archive film, including Lindsay Anderson’s Every Day Except Christmas (1957) from the BFI National Archive with virtual production techniques to bring to life the history of this iconic civic space.