Sky Arts, for which we've just completed Art of Faith, is very savvy about securing press attention. And one of its smartest strategies is the Friday night "Hijack" slot. A personality chooses a run of programmes for the evening from the channel's catalogue. Marry this idea with a figure in whom the press is interested and it's a smart way of securing free column inches.
Announced today is the programmer for Friday August 22: Culture Secretary Andy Burnham, still somewhat of a mystery to those in the arts and broadcasting. So today the Guardian Culture blog and the Times ran pieces about what might be divined from his selection. And nestled in his quartet of announced choices is a half-hour documentary about Antony Gormley, an artist who according to Burnham achieves "the remarkable trick of being both utterly accessible and deeply mysterious at the same time".
Now could this be, could this possibly be, our film from theEYE series with Gormley? The Times describes the programme as an "interview" with the artist, which is a pretty fair description of our documentary, although it also features a really good and rather beautifully filmed selection of his works. And this EYE is under licence to Sky Arts. If it is, I have to say I'm rather childishly pleased with the idea -- and tomorrow I'll try to confirm whether this is the case. The picture incidentally is of one of Gormley's accessible-but-mysterious figures snapped at Roche Court earlier in the summer.
Update: Sky Arts have confirmed that Andy Burnham's choice is indeed our EYE film. Neat that, isn't it?
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