It’s the holy grail now that the on-demand streaming networks know exactly who watches every film, for how long, and when that viewer switches off or takes a ‘comfort break’. We’ve learned that viewers will pay good money to watch high quality factual films, they’ll even go to their cinemas for them. Doc series should appeal to binge watchers - as soon as one episode is over the next one must be irresistible.

Documentary is the new entertainment. This is the biggest boom-time for docs that I have seen across 30 years in the business. It leaves producers with the blunt question - how do you ensure this film plays like a scripted drama while keeping the authenticity of an editorially solid documentary?

Every documentary director and showrunner worth their salt aims to create a compelling narrative arc that makes sense to the viewer of an unscripted story. They know their Joseph Campbell hero’s journey, and I bet that most have read around Robert McKee’s Story Seminars.

A small growing band are successful both as documentary makers and drama directors in tandem. Werner Herzog is an obvious example, Kevin Macdonald and Paul Greengrass in the UK. Within the agency I run, Paul Wilmshurst was an Emmy-winning docs director long before he started directing Jamestown, Strike Back and Doctor Who. Now he takes that scripted experience back to documentary.

Or bring in a brilliant Story Editor and transform your production in post. It’s a relatively new senior editorial role for many production companies. James Kent (American Crime II, The White Queen, Testament of Youth) made award-winning docs in the UK for 20 years, before his drama directing took him to Hollywood. Now he makes movies, and consults as story editor on other people’s docs. Another, Nigel Levy, not only steers major Netflix doc series in post production but teaches other people how it works. Kate Hampel may be one of the best story editors in the business, working away quietly to sprinkle narrative magic on a potentially lacklustre production.

Ensure your doc is as compelling as Game of Thrones and this boom-time will be yours.

Can your documentaries keep us on the edge of our seats like scripted movies do?