Life of Paula Yates to be explored in new Channel 4 documentary
The TV presenter and journalist died aged 41 in 2000.
The life of Paula Yates is set to be explored in a new two-part documentary for Channel 4.
TV presenter and journalist Yates, who died at the age of 41 in 2000, was known for her presenting roles on The Tube and The Big Breakfast.
The two-part series titled Paula will explore the life and legacy of Yates, who garnered a great deal of press attention throughout her life as a result of her marriage to Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof and her subsequent relationship with Australian singer Michael Hutchence.
The documentary will be formed around four “extraordinarily compelling” interviews with Yates, which were recorded in 1998 and 1999 shortly before her death and have never been heard before.
In the interviews, Yates “frankly and eloquently discusses the positives and pitfalls of her life”.
The documentary will also include testimonies from Yates’s close friends and former colleagues, as well as footage from a number of other interviews she gave and the programmes she presented.
Yates, whose death was ruled as an accidental heroin overdose, made her TV debut on Channel 4 on November 5 1982 on influential music programme The Tube.
She went on to become a presenter on Channel 4 breakfast show The Big Breakfast in 1992, where she become well-known for her On The Bed interviews.
Speaking about the upcoming series, head of specialist factual at Channel 4 Shaminder Nahal said: “Paula Yates exploded onto our screens in the very first week that Channel 4 came on air in 1982, a whirlwind of wit, verve and charisma – a totally unique style.
“Looking at what she achieved now, it feels like no-one has ever quite matched her as a TV presenter.
“So as Channel 4 reflects on 40 years, it feels right to look at her life and career, and what an impact she made.
“As ever, Curious Films has made a riveting and sensitive series that will, I hope, introduce Paula to a new generation.”
The programme will be produced by Curious Films for Channel 4.
The producer at Curious Films, Charlene Chika Osuagwu, said: “Paula is the real story of a singular woman who was both ahead of her time and totally of it, which explores how she shaped, and was shaped by, the seismic changes in British culture and celebrity and what it meant to be a successful woman in that era.
“Paula’s battle to ‘have it all’, torn between the duties of family life and her own personal career and happiness in the magnifying glare of a world determined to judge her, provide a powerful lesson for today’s world and women fighting the same issues 40 years later.”
Yates married Boomtown Rats frontman Geldof in Las Vegas in 1986. The couple had three daughters – Fifi, Peaches and Pixi.
After Geldof and Yates divorced in 1996, Yates went on to have a child, Tiger Lily, with Hutchence, the lead singer of Australian rock band INXS.
