Cliff Notes – Michael Sheen’s Channel 4 documentary investigated over ‘originality’
- Filmmakers Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell allege that Michael Sheen’s recent documentary closely mirrors their 2021 film, "Bank Job," which focused on community-driven debt relief initiatives.
- Channel 4 and Full Fat TV have dismissed the claims as "ludicrous," asserting that their documentary was independently developed and that the two projects are significantly different.
Michael Sheen’s Channel 4 documentary investigated over ‘originality’
Filmmakers of a 2021 documentary have said a recent one featuring Michael Sheen copied theirs (Picture: Channel 4)
Channel 4 has slammed ‘ludicrous’ claims a recent programme may have ripped off a 2021 documentary.
Released four years ago, the ‘community driven’ feature film Bank Job followed filmmakers Dan Edelstyn and Hilary Powell as they instigated and followed a community in Walthamstowe, East London as they came together to make their own currency and open a bank to examine how money and debt is created in the economy. They also worked to query how the system of money creation might be altered in their favour.
The act of ‘citizen money creation’ was also used as a way to raise money for causes in the community and a way of fundraising to ‘buy and destroy £1million of local predatory debts’.
Last month the programme Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway saw the actor put his own money on the line to ‘expose the world of high-interest debt and credit’.
He did so by buying £1 million worth of debt owed by people in his hometown of Port Talbot for £100,000, which he then planned to write off immediately.
However, a month on Edelstyn and Powell, who spent their life savings developing their documentary about the UK’s debt crisis have questioned the originality of Sheen’s project.
Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway aired last month (Picture: Gareth Iwan Jones/ Channel 4)
The pair also claim they had pitched their idea to the actor years ago.
The Guardian has reported their lawyers have contacted Sheen and the producers behind his show over concerns it is incredibly similar to their feature.
In their letter, the lawyers said they ‘support Michael Sheen’s efforts to support those treated unjustly in the UK’ but there were ‘questions as to the originality of the Channel 4 documentary’.
They explained it was because the recent documentary also ‘focuses on a specific write-off target of £1m as a story hook [and] … grounds the debt write-off in a very specific locality.
They claim Bank Job was groundbreaking as it was the ‘first time an action like this had been undertaken in the UK’ and also asked Channel 4, Michael Sheen and production company Full Fat TV to ‘explain what you knew of our client’s work’.
‘It is difficult for our client not to conclude that its ideas have been used without its permission or, at the very least, cursory credit,’ they continued.
Edelstyn and Powell said the idea for their film came in 2014, later getting in contact with Sheen and his team three years later.
They replied to the pair saying: ‘We are working on a big debt project, so we are interested in finding out more.’
The documentary Bank Job hit screens in 2021 (Picture: Dartmouth Films)
The Guardian read emails that showed Edelstyn responded to say their production company Optimistic had plans to ‘buy up and destroy a lot of predatory debt’ and were keen to ‘get Michael involved in one of another’.
The filmmakers also had a call with Sheen’s personal assistant, who then wrote in an email it was ‘too early to say’ if the actor could financially contribute to the project but they believed the project would have a ‘wider cultural impact’.
They updated the personal assistant in 2018 and explained they’d purchased and cancelled £1 million local payday debt’. Two years later they corresponded for the last time, with Sheen’s assistance saying Optimistic’s email would be sent to him.
A letter for their layer detailed: ‘Bank Job premiered in May 2021 at Hot Docs international film festival followed by a UK cinema release and nominations for Bifa and Grierson awards. Our client understands that the production company Full Fat TV pitched their film in June 2021 and Channel 4 subsequently commissioned the idea in 2022.’
However, the claims of a lack of originality have been shut down by Channel 4 and Full Fat TV.
The latter said it ‘independently developed and pitched’ Secret Million Pound Giveaway to Channel 4.
‘It is a shame that an important message about the unfairness of the credit system in this country, which Michael spent £100,000 of his own money to highlight, risks being lost due to these unfounded claims,’ they said.
Meanwhile, in a statement to Metro, a Channel 4 spokesperson said: ‘These two programmes are significantly different and it’s ludicrous to suggest that one is a copy of the other.
‘Buying and writing off debt is an established practice which has been covered in the media on multiple occasions and the commissioner who greenlit and worked on Michael Sheen’s Million Pound giveaway had no awareness of Bank Job.’
Sheen was initially approached to work on the first film (Picture: Hoda Davaine/ Dave Benett/ Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Sheen told The Guardian said the inspiration for him doing the programme ‘came from watching John Oliver buying medical bill debt in the US in 2016’, adding that he was ‘regularly pitched documentary ideas but only commits to the ones he really believes in’.
At the time of its release, Bank Job was praised by critics and holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘In addition to activism and the intention to bring about tangible change, Bank Job is a fiery portrait of the power of community action,’ La Esatuilla wrote.
‘A compelling exploration into a deep and dank money pit, with a sharp, vivid focus on the humanity at the centre of artistic and social endeavours,’ HeyUGuys added.
Metro has contacted representatives for Michael Sheen for comment.
