Local big names join international star-studded shows
Seasoned South African journalists Mandy Wiener and John Robbie will host the HISTORY® Channel Africa’s two latest local documentary shows, Great African Crimes and Great African Mysteries S2. They will join several international big names on DStv 186 this year, including Morgan Freeman, Dan Aykroyd, Laurence Fishburne and William Shatner.
The channel’s newest local show, Great African Crimes with Mandy Wiener, will uncover the details behind some of the most riveting crimes from South Africa’s past. This gripping one-off show will unravel three dramatic crimes that left the nation both stunned and captivated. It will form part of the HISTORY Channel Africa’s dedicated ‘Crime Month’ in October.
As a keen viewer of the channel, Wiener says she is incredibly excited about being the host of this new local doccie. She says, “Great African Crimes has all the ingredients of a compelling TV show – really interesting crimes, complex characters, intriguing narratives, the backdrop of the African context. I’m looking forward to telling these stories and working with a great team of producers and creators. I hope to bring my two decades of experience in the news environment, telling crime stories, to this project.”
Great African Mysteries with John Robbie, will be back for its second season in August. The show returns to investigate three of South Africa’s most fascinating and little-known mysteries after a successful first installment last year. Around two billion years ago, an asteroid measuring at least 10 kilometers across crashed into Earth, near the present-day town of Vredefort. In just one of the three stories, Great African Mysteries will investigate how Johannesburg’s gold fields were preserved and protected by this mighty blast.
Robbie, who says people keep asking him for another chapter of Great African Mysteries, is delighted that it is in the making. He explains, “As with the first season this show will educate, thrill and challenge people’s perceptions about aspects of the past in Africa. South Africa, and indeed Africa, have such incredible history and prehistory and so much of it has either been forgotten or not widely taught. I’m hoping that this project with inspire people to look into this with newly opened minds.”
Both Great African Crimes with Mandy Wiener and the second season of Great African Mysteries with John Robbie will be produced by Clive Morris Productions.
In September the channel will once again bring you the poignant short-form series, My History Moments. Notable South Africans will share pivotal moments from their lives that have historical significance and profound personal meaning. Last year global business speaker Vusi Thembekwayo, broadcaster, David O’Sullivan, and singer and songwriter, Yvonne Chaka Chaka were some of those who shared their moving stories.
Among the incredible international talent coming to the HISTORY Channel Africa is Dan Aykroyd. The UnBelievable with Dan Aykroyd (Fridays at 19h25, starting 22 March) is not only wildly entertaining, but a smart series that digs up the weirdest people, places, objects, and events in human history.
Another new famous face on the HISTORY Channel is Emmy award-winning Christopher Eccleston, who stars in The Guilty Innocent with Christopher Eccleston. This gripping new series explores some of the world’s most infamous cases of wrongful convictions.
The returning favourites in the channel’s all-star lineup also includes William Shatner who, in July, will host the latest season of The UnXplained with William Shatner. In September, Laurence Fishburne will unpack the puzzles of the world’s most enigmatic unsolved mysteries in season 5 of History’s Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne.
Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman executive produces and features in the documentary 761st Tank Battalion: The Original Black Panthers, in October. It will tell the true story of the first Black tank unit to serve in combat during WWII and explore in-depth the major battles they faced both overseas while in combat and back home in the United States.
Marketing Manager of the HISTORY Channel Africa, Anita Gardini concludes, “Having some of the biggest names in the business partner with us on our upcoming content demonstrates the growing interest, worldwide, in gripping historical content. From a local perspective, we’re thrilled to be sharing South African stories and to be turning the spotlight onto historical events which are unfamiliar to many. The HISTORY Channel Africa takes seriously our role in documenting and being home to these local stories that matter.”
