Fly on the wall
{{Short description|Style of documentary-making}}
{{other uses}}
File:Highscreen Black Box Connect as CCTV.jpg
Fly on the wall is a style of documentary-making used in film and television production. The name derived from the idea that events are seen candidly, as a fly on a wall might see them. In the purest form of fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, the camera crew works as unobtrusively as possible; however, it is also common for participants to be interviewed, often by an off-camera voice.{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/698785/|title=BFI Screenonline: 'Fly on the Wall' TV}}
Decades before structured reality shows became popular, the BBC had broadcast fly-on-the-wall film Royal Family (a 1969 documentary produced in association with ITV),{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/royal-family-documentary-history-queen-elizabeth-ii/|title='Royal Family': the fly-on-the-wall documentary the Palace doesn't want you to see|website=HistoryExtra}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/300217438/royal-family-documentary-banned-by-the-queen-resurfaces-online-50-years-later|title=Royal family documentary 'banned' by the Queen resurfaces online 50 years later|date=January 29, 2021|website=Stuff}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/banned-royal-family-documentary-1969-19724259|title=Banned Royal family documentary from 1969 resurfaces on Youtube|first=Neil|last=Shaw|date=January 29, 2021}} while 1974's The Family, is said to be the earliest example of a reality TV docusoap on the BBC.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0168rq5|title=BBC - History of the BBC, April 1974 - The Family - the first 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary|website=BBC}}{{Cite web|url=http://bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/april/the-family/|title=The Family first episode|website=bbc.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/the-family-says-goodbye-4249487|title=The family says goodbye|first=Laura|last=Miller|date=August 18, 2008}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wilkinses-reading-where-are-they-now-1082290.html|title=The Wilkinses of Reading: Where Are They Now?|date=October 23, 2011|website=The Independent}} In 1978 the BBC aired Living in the Past recreating a British Iron Age settlement. In the late 1990s, Chris Terrill's docusoap series The Cruise{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000x8m5/the-cruise|title=The Cruise|via=www.bbc.co.uk}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000x8m4|title=BBC One - The Cruise, Let the Dream Begin|website=BBC}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000x8m5|title=BBC One - The Cruise|website=BBC}} made a star of singer{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jane-mcdonald-mn0000641575/biography|title=Jane McDonald | Biography & History|website=AllMusic}} and TV personality Jane McDonald,{{Cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/4871/jane-mcdonald/|title=Jane McDonald | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company|website=www.officialcharts.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.joingocruiseandtravel.co.uk/cruise-news/new-series-of-cruising-with-jane-mcdonald-to-start-this-friday|title=New series of Cruising with Jane McDonald to start this Friday | GoCruise & Travel Franchise|website=www.joingocruiseandtravel.co.uk}}{{Cite web|url=https://jane-mcdonald.com/biography|title=Biography}} while Welsh cleaner Maureen Rees{{Cite web|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/search-mo-driving-school-welsh-15587132|title=In search of Mo from Driving School|first=David|last=Owens|date=December 23, 2018|website=WalesOnline}} became popular after her appearances on BBC One's{{Cite web|url=http://bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/june/driving-school/|title=Driving School|website=bbc.com}} Driving School.{{Cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/4031/maureen-rees/|title=MAUREEN REES | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company|website=Official Charts }}
Other British examples include Airline, Dynamo: Magician Impossible and Channel 4's Educating... series, while in the United States popular examples include American Factory, Cops, Deadliest Catch, Big Brother and Weiner, a film about a political sex scandal which developed during a mayoral election in New York.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/30/anthony-weiner-sexting-scandal-new-york-documentary|title=Weiner – how a film about a political sex scandal suddenly got more intimate | Weiner | The Guardian|newspaper=The Guardian |date=30 June 2016 |last1=Barnes |first1=Henry }}