Heroin addiction and ‘Legal Highs’ documentaries for BBC Three

The channel without a channel – BBC Three – is to air, well put online, two new documentaries which will show how drugs and addiction are affecting young people in Britain today.

Chasing Dad follows a father’s heroin addiction from his son’s perspective while The Last Days Of Legal Highs confronts a generation-defining shift in drug culture.

“BBC Three is here to inform, educate and entertain young people, and cover issues that matter to them. Chasing Dad and Legal Highs will stimulate debate about how drugs affect young people today, from two very different perspectives.” – Damian Kavanagh, Controller BBC Three

The Last Days of Legal Highs, is a one-off 45 minute documentary which aims to examine different sides of Britain’s legal high epidemic, this factual production confronts a generation-defining shift in drug culture as a psychoactive substances bill to ban legal highs becomes law on Wednesday 6th April 2016. The film pivots around two ‘Head Shops’ in Portsmouth that are doing a busy trade in legal drug dealing, selling all kinds of legal highs, from Spice to Gogaine.

On the eve of the ban, before the government makes untested chemicals illegal, the film follows those who sell, take and deal legal highs, and the consequences of each. The Last Days Of Legal Highs also features exclusive access to the elusive Dr Z – creator of some of these substances, and a man determined to chemically and legally find a way to flout the ban and keep the Head Shops open. The programme will all be available from bbc.co.uk/bbcthree on Tuesday 5th April.

The second one-off 45 minute programme, Chasing Dad, has yet to have an upload date for BBC Three however the show follows Phillip Wood who after years of acrimony and estrangement seeks out his father, a heroin addict, to try and understand what’s happened to him since they were separated. Phillip’s father is seriously ill and, over months of filming, Phillip’s visits force father and son to confront some uncomfortable truths about their past.

Developed from Philip’s graduation film, Chasing Dad offers a stark exploration into a subject that significantly affected his childhood. This intimate documentary will show addiction from the other side and challenge our assumptions about how families can rebuild their broken relationships.