Leading UK televisionproduction outfit Darlow Smithson Productions (DSP) has appointed Elinor Day,the former deputy head of production at FilmFour, to head up a new feature filmdivision specialising in documentaries and docu-hybrids.

Factual specialist DSPenjoyed huge critical and box office success recently with theatricaldocumentary Touching The Void, which won a BAFTA for Best British Filmin 2004.

Late last year, DSP wonslate funding of £250,000 a year for three years from the UK Film Council's DevelopmentFund to develop film projects alongside partner companies Pathe, Channel 4 andFilmFour.

Day, whose credits include EastIs East and Gangster No 1, will look to produce seven theatricaldocumentaries, docu-dramas or dramas based on real events over the next threeyears at DSP.

Day said she plans to casther net wide - both in terms of subject matter and directors to work with. Shewill look to work with 'really strong' TV documentary makers who might want tospread their wings and with drama directors interested in working on adocumentary.

DSP executive chairman andcreative director John Smithson said: "It's amazing to think there hadn't beena UK documentary box-office hit before Touching The Void - yet the UK ishome to some of the world's best documentary makers. We want to find the bestideas the UK has to offer - big genre defining stories which are made for thecinema - and help make them real. Elinor Day is a respected name in theindustry and well place to see that we succeed."

For full Elinor Dayinterview, see this week's Screen International magazine.

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