Clive Tulloh, the son of distance running legend Bruce, says this summer’s Channel 4 programmes about British Olympians and Paralympians will hopefully enjoy a further series
The executive producer of the Path to Paris: The Hunt for Gold documentary on Channel 4 this weekend (July 20-21) believes its success could inspire more programmes in future about the lives of leading British athletes.
Clive Tulloh from Burning Bright Productions has overseen the two-part series with the first episode this weekend focusing on Keely Hodgkinson, Josh Kerr, Morgan Lake and Jake Wightman and the second set to come out closer to the Paralympics – also on Channel 4 – featuring Hannah Cockroft, Zak Skinner, Funmi Oduwaiye and Nathan Maguire.
The documentaries have received funding from the National Lottery and, if they prove popular, could lead to more. “There are so many stories in athletics, we could have got a 10-part series done,” says Tulloh.
“Once every four years everybody gets excited about athletics and then it’s all forgotten again,” he adds. “Not enough people know how phenomenal Josh Kerr or Keely Hodgkinson are.”
The Channel 4 documentaries aside, this summer has also seen Netflix bringing out a docu-series about sprinters, while BBC1 has broadcast a 90-minute life story on decathlon legend Daley Thompson with a further lengthy programme about Linford Christie due out later this summer.
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
The 62-year-old Tulloh has enjoyed a successful career producing documentaries and entertainment programmes. But as a former runner himself, the sport is close to his heart.
What’s more, he is the son of Bruce Tulloh, the 1962 European 5000m champion and one of the most iconic distance runners in history. Distance runners and coaches with long memories will also remember his sisters, Katherine and Jo-Jo, who won English Schools titles in the 1980s.
At the 1987 English Schools in Portsmouth they even beat a young Kelly Holmes into third place as they finished one-two in the inter girls 1500m with Katherine clocking 4:25.5 for gold.
However, as they ran barefoot just like their father, who was widely known as “Barefoot Bruce”, they were likened to Zola Budd and found the whole experience quite pressurised – even once appearing on Blue Peter as promising young runners – and they stopped taking running seriously soon after their teenage triumphs.
Clive believes the sport is currently not as high profile as it was during the 1980s and he has worked with UK Athletics chief executive Jack Buckner, an old friend from Loughborough University, to showcase some of the athletes on Channel 4.
“We need to make the characters in athletics household names again,” he says. “It’s frightening how much athletes have fallen behind other sports when it comes to national recognition.”
Tulloh even tells a story about how his christening was a front page story on the front of the Daily Mirror once with a headline along the lines of “Barefoot Bruce’s son is Christened barefoot”. His father was “only” a European champion, he adds, as opposed to an Olympic gold medallist, but the story illustrates the popularity of athletics half a century or so ago.
“There is still a really core following for events like the Diamond League and the stadium will be packed for that London Athletics Meet,” he says, “but it doesn’t seem to stretch much beyond that.”
Bruce Tulloh (Mark Shearman)
Why is it? “Athletics hasn’t progressed as a sport in the way that other sports have tried to keep up with the times and tried to capture the television audiences. If you look at the way, golf and tennis and rugby and even cycling are constantly evolving their sport to make it more media friendly, athletics seems to have stayed as it is.”
He adds: “You could say that even though it’s down to the fact we had great rivalries in the Coe and Ovett era, but we have those great rivalries today too. I think things are moving in the right direction though and it’d be great to get if the sport could get more recognition.”
Tulloh’s documentary team, which includes Jim Allen, the son of former athletics journalist Neil Allen, travelled to see the athletes training in Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Turkey and places like Bushy Park and Manchester in the UK.
“The idea is to show the audience what it takes to become an Olympic contender or to try to win Olympic gold,” he explains. “It’s incredibly hard work and the journey is as interesting as the arrival. It shows you the commitment of the families as much as the athletes. And the athletes have been great and given us really good access behind the scenes.”
Josh Kerr (Pliability)
Buckner describes it as an “epic watch” and adds: “I’m thrilled we can shine a light on our great sport and the stars within it as the nation builds up to Olympic and Paralympic fever this summer. The series allows us to show the transformational impact that The National Lottery has had on our sport in the last 30 years. Investment into facilities, support staff, camps, competitions and more means that our athletes are the very best prepared they can be.”
Hodgkinson says: “Being part of this documentary will give people an insight into how we train, our day-to-day lives before a major competition and the challenges you have to overcome to race against the best in the world. I love my sport and I want to let people see what goes into those few minutes on the track in front of the world.”
Clive admits the programmes were initially a bit of a hard sell. But Channel 4 stepped up with their interest.
On possible future series, Clive adds: “If the documentaries do well then hopefully there’ll be an appetite for more. We’ve done Josh, Morgan, Keely and Jake but there are great athletes like Matt Hudson-Smith, Zharnel Hughes, Dina Asher-Smith… the list is endless it seems at the moment. It’s been as good as it’s ever been really.”
Path to Paris will be on July 20 at 4.55pm and July 21 at 10pm.
» Subscribe to AW magazine here