Mentorn Media has been nominated in the Best Independent Production Company category for the Broadcast Awards 2014, it has been announced.

Edwardian Insects on Film, the BBC Four Mentorn Scotland produced documentary, has also been nominated for the Best Multichannel Programme category.

The one hour film, presented by Charlie Hamilton-James and directed by John Holdsworth, told the story of one of the great unsung heroes of Natural History filmmaking, Percy Smith.

Time Out said of the programme, “The more we learn about Smith, the more justified this ode to him seems, whilst his sweet funny and beautiful films are proof enough of their worth.”

Mentorn Media will be competing against five other production companies for the title of Best Independent Production Company.

The Broadcast Awards 2014 will take place on 5th February, 2014.

BBC One’s political debate programme, Question Time, is being hosted from Falkirk on Thursday, November 28th.

David Dimbleby chairs the programme which sees Scotland's Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon MSP; Liberal Democrat Secretary of State for Scotland Alistair Carmichael MP; former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Annabel Goldie MSP; Labour's Shadow Scottish Secretary Margaret Curran MP; co-convenor of the Scottish Greens Patrick Harvie MSP, and the singer-songwriter and member of Artists for Independence Eddi Reader, face questions from the audience.

To apply for a seat in the audience you can register your question at www.bbc.co.uk/questiontime

For further information please contact Louise Plank on 020 8995 3936 or lou@plankpr.com

Passion Distribution is happy to announce sales on a host of new and exciting shows and formats from Mentorn Media. Famed for its great shows, such as AN IDIOT ABROAD, PARADISE HOTEL and WORST DRIVER, Mentorn’s programming continues to prove popular with buyers around the world.

TV3 (Eire) has signed a large package deal for a host of Mentorn shows including, the BBC Three tell-all documentary OSCAR PISTORIUS: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED? (1 x 60’), the Channel 4 shock-doc KATIE: MY BEAUTIFUL FACE (1 x 60’), and the Channel 5 clip-show series WORLD’S SCARIEST (Season 1-3: 12 x 60’).

CRAZY ABOUT ONE DIRECTION (1 x 60’) continues to sell well for Passion, and Norway’s digital platform VGTV is the latest to pick up the Channel 4 fandom documentary. Produced for BBC, EDWARDIAN INSECTS ON FILM (1 x 60’) examines the work of amateur naturalist filmmaker Percy Smith, and recreates some of his most famous work, the show includes a cameo from world renowned naturalist Sir David Attenborough. The documentary has been licenced by SBS (Australia), Chello (Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary), TrueVisions TV (Thailand) and UKTV (UK).

Over 2000 episodes of Mentorn’s hit reality format, PARADISE HOTEL, have been produced in 12 territories and the finished programmes continue to sell globally. Viasat has run a number of local PARADISE HOTEL productions across its Central and Eastern European feed, including the Norwegian, Danish, and the U.S. version and has most recently picked up the first four seasons of PARADISE HOTEL, RUSSIA (Season 1-4: 392 x 30’) for its Latvia feed. Foxtel (Australia) has also checked in with passion, licencing the brand new BBC Three show HOTEL OF MUM AND DAD (6 x 60’).

Other deals include an agreement with OUTTV Media to run all three seasons of the reality series WORK OUT (Season 1-3: 24 x 60’) for Flemish speaking Belgium, Sweden and The Netherlands, and a deal with BBC Worldwide Channels to run Britain’s Worst Driver (Season 1-2: 15 x 30’) across Poland.

In exclusive interviews with BBC Three’s Free Speech the Deputy Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have spoken up on voter apathy and engaging young people.

To be broadcast from Westminster Hall tonight at 8pm, as part of a discussion on voter engagement, Nick Clegg described his frustration at the archaic and macho language used in Westminster. 

“I think there are lots of people, of all generations who look at the kind of Yaboo macho language of Westminster and just think the whole thing is like a different species, yelling at each other across the gangway in Westminster.

“I long for a day when politics is actually done in our language in Westminster, which is a normal language rather than this archaic, shouty, 19^th century language.”

When asked why young people should be encouraged to vote he said, “I think people should vote because at the end of the day governments don’t do everything, nor should they, governments can’t fix everything, nor should anyone think they can, but actually governments and who’s in government makes a difference to the way taxes are structured, how education is funded, to the stance we take on international affairs, to the efforts we make to protect the environment.”

The programme which will broadcast live from Parliament also sees Ed Miliband discussing his views on the much discussed topic of young people voting. He calls for the voting age to be lowered and admits that politics is not considered fashionable.

He said, “We need to hear the voices of young people better in our democracy, that why I’ve said we want to see votes for 16 and 17 year olds, because I think it’s right we take that step. Citizenship education in schools for young people and extending the vote to 16 and 17 year olds so we properly engage young people in our democracy. Frankly only by hearing their voice in our politics will our politics change, and I’m determined we do that.”

Miliband continued, “I know it’s not fashionable but please engage in politics. I want you [young people] to vote for the Labour party but I want you to engage in politics even more. I want you engaged in our democracy, because you know, it’s easy to complain about things and the way the country’s run, unless you get engaged you can’t change things, and I happen to believe it’s not just leaders who change things, it’s the voices of people that change things and the votes of people, so that’s why I’d urge people to get engaged and register to vote.”

Tonight's edition of Free Speech will be hosted from inside the Houses of Parliament as part of Parliament Week. The programme, hosted by Rick Edwards, sees panellists including Labour and Co-operative MP for Walthamstow Stella Creasy, and Conservative MP for North East Somerset, Jacob Rees-Mogg, discuss topics including long term unemployment and overseas aid, as they face questions from the audience of 18-30 year-olds.

Free Speech offers viewers the chance to have their voice heard with Tina Daheley gathering the Twitter, Facebook and website messages live on air. To follow the debate and get involved go to bbc.co.uk/freespeech; facebook.com/bbcfreespeech; @bbcfreespeech; #freespeech

For further press information please contact Plank PR on 020 8995 3936