Here's one: a 'pitch' I wrote in a moment of unemployed megalomania in 2017, Mexico Season on the BBC, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the bloody beginnings of this most extraordinary hybrid nation in 2019, and because they had done something similar on India. However, I did it with no access to any commissioning structures, because it was something I would have liked to have seen on TV, and I was also sick of the big orange man's dismal views on a country I love being amplified by every media outlet. It built on previous research for a book (A Very British Book on Mexico in 2015) and was - theoretically - for the BBC.

 

After churning this out and flailing around trying to 'sell' it, I decided to focus my writing efforts on areas I could control - i.e. the manuscript / script itself. I finished a mid-years children's novel, The Treasure Ship, and write travel articles and teaching materials. I even get paid for these.

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Mmm Productions proposes: Mexico Season on the BBC (2019)

To mark 500 years since the traumatic events which led to the foundation of the hybrid nation of Mexico, Mmm Productions proposes a series of programmes, articles and events on the BBC:

Television (and additional content):

1 History of a Hybrid nation: A (series of 3) programme(s) on the unique history of the country:

a) Indigenous Mexico: the unbroken thread from pre-colonial history - beliefs, customs, art, and how they endured through the colonial period and have permeated the life of the country as it is lived now.

b) A single programme on the Conquest of Mexico, one of the bloodiest, most improbable narratives in the history of the world - a collision between two entirely separate branches of humanity whose aftershocks are still being worked through 500 years on. To be broadcast in November 2019 after Mexico Live (see below). Suggestion for presenting: Michael Wood could get back in the saddle - it would be Conquistadors + new indigenous perspectives.

c) Modern Mexico: this could be a series of reports, magazine-style, for Mexico Live (see below), or a single programme on Mexico amid and beyond the violence: family life, art, music, film, writing, architecture, urban and rural contrasts and constants. It could look at its northern neighbour and other influences.

2 The Art of Mexico: From the Ancient to the Baroque and back again: evolution, rupture and a return to the past. A history of Mexico through its art. Suggestion for presenting:  Andrew Graham-Dixon (or a programme in the vein of the Art of Spain, a brilliant series).

3 A Brief History of the British in Mexico: A standalone programme tracing British interaction with the country, or a series of features for Mexico Live on British people in Mexico (and Mexicans in the UK), covering, among others:

Historical: Francis Drake, the pirate, and other adventurers of the 16th-18th centuries; Frances Erskine, aka Mme Calderón de la Barca, British wife of a Spanish diplomat, Frederick Catherwood, (re)discoverer of Mayan Civilization in the 19th century; writers Malcolm Lowry, Graham Greene and Sybille Bedford in the 20th century.

Interviews with, for example: Artist Damien Hirst, actress Salma Hayek, food sage Diana Kennedy,  writer DBC Pierre.

4 Mexican Food: A (series of 3) programme(s) celebrating the myriad cuisines of Mexico.  Suggestion for presenting:  Thomasina Miers, owner of Wahaca restaurants and food writer.

a) Ancient ingredients and recipes: the Mexican 'terroir', and unique ingredients: hibiscus flowers, agave, nopales, corn smut (huítlacoche), insects etc. Locations: Michoacán, Oaxaca, Guerrero. Also: the accumulated wisdom of 50 years collecting recipes: a feature on Diana Kennedy.

b) Hybridisation: Colonial, post-colonial European, Middle-Eastern influences: Lebanese refugees from the Ottomans, French boulangers, Cornish miners. Locations: Mexico City, Mérida, Puebla, the north.

c) The Modern World: fusion cuisine, Pacific influences, the northern neighbour, fast food and its rejection, a return to the terroir. Locations: Ensenada, Mexico City, Monterrey.

These programmes would go hand-in-hand with interviews and reports on chefs, food writers and historians, and would culminate in a series of features in the Mexico Live programmes.

5 Mexico Live: A series of 2 (or more) live events in November 2019, interspersed with recorded reports, bringing together natural history, culture, art and history, both recent and ancient, in a magazine-style programme, with interviews, live links and pre-recorded reports.

a) Day of the Dead - 1st and 2nd November

b) A special programme on the Conquest - 8th November 2019

(c) Monarch Butterfly migration south - either within or after programmes 1 and 2)

(d) Grey Whale migration to Baja California - filming whales arrive - either within or after programmes 1 and 2)

An alternative month is March/April - Carnaval (which takes place everywhere but is particularly good in Mazatlán or Veracruz), Monarchs go north, Whales are calving, and it could be a programme on Cortes landing in Veracruz.

6 Wild Mexico: The BBC Wildlife Unit will put together a (series of 3) programme(s) on Wild Mexico, encompassing:

a) Marine Life. The Pacific coast: The Sea of Cortez down to Guatemala: whales, nurseries, migrations, crocodile-shaped mangrove lagoons, birdlife. The Gulf and Caribbean: coastal mangrove nurseries, bird life, reefs, whale shark migrations, sailfish, swordfish.

b) High Mountains and Deserts. Pine forests, high plateaus and volcanoes, desert life, the great Monarch butterfly migration, pumas.

c) Low  Jungles. Yucatan and Pacific coastal jungles, Lacandon rainforest, jaguars, tapirs.

These programmes would go hand-in-hand with a look at people living and working in these environments, and would culminate in a series of features in the Mexico Live programmes, including:

In search of mythical creatures: the Quetzal; the Jaguar; the Blue Whale; the Grey Whale; the Monarch Butterfly.

 

Radio/podcast/website articles/short reports to be embedded into longer magazine-style programmes:

Individuals who shaped Mexico

Following the success of the India series, BBC R4 will profile 20(+) individuals who have shaped Mexico, for better or worse, over the last 20+ centuries, in a series of 15 minute radio features. Some possible names:

Quetzalcóatl, the feathered serpent - most prominent of Mesoamerican gods; Moctezuma II, last Emperor of the Aztecs; Hernán Cortez, conquistador; Malintzin, his lover; ; Bernal Díaz, his lieutenant and chronicler; Bartolomé de las Casas, priest, chronicler and conscience of post-conquest atrocities; General Santa Ana, dictator, reckless general, loser of 1/3 of national territory to the US; Benito Juárez, incorruptible and implacable first indigenous president; Frederick Catherwood, rediscoverer of Mayan civilizations; Porfirio Díaz, dictator; Emiliano Zapata, Pancho Villa, revolutionaries; Lázaro Cárdenas, post-revolution president; the 20th century Muralists (Rivera, Orozco, Siqueiros), who painted and mythologised the PRI's vision; Frida Kahlo, feminist in a misogynist culture;  Octavio Paz, poet and philosopher of the Mexican condition; Carlos Fuentes, writer; El Chapo, smuggler; Carlos Slim, billionaire monopolist.

About Mmm Productions:

Mmm Productions was set up by Guy Mavor in 2015, to develop nature, travel and cultural programming. Guy worked as a Spanish and French teacher from 2006-2015, and prior to that was a travel writer, the founding editor of realmadrid.com, a TV copywriter and many other things beside. He is the co-author of A Very British Book on Contemporary Mexico and A Very British Guide to Contemporary Mexico (both 2015) and Culture Smart! Mexico (2003), as well as academic papers on the indigenous frontier in Latin America, and has written, or contributed to, numerous treatments for British TV companies such as Baci Films and, latterly, Raw TV. Guy believes that this - admittedly huge - project is feasible, not only given the BBC's pre-existing structures and strengths, but also from his own, and others', extensive research carried out for these two most recent books, and continuing contact with a network of writers, researchers and fixers in Mexico and with the BBC.

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