Sky announce new three-part golden age of darts docuseries “Dart Kings”
Sky announce new three-part golden age of darts docuseries “Dart Kings”
Produced by award-winning Mindhouse Productions
In the New Year, Sky step up to the oche with this brand-new three-part docuseries Dart Kings (3x60’). Produced by the award-winning Mindhouse Productions (Boybands Forever, Lockerbie, Gods of Tennis, Louis Theroux Interviews) and from BAFTA-winning executive producer Nancy Strang, the series marks the latest collaboration between Sky and Mindhouse Productions following the BAFTA win for Lockerbie earlier this year and the critically acclaimed Tell Them You Love Me.
Coming to Sky Documentaries and NOW in 2025, the series takes viewers on a nostalgic trip down memory lane through the golden age of darts and shines a spotlight on the nation’s most unlikely sporting heroes Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson and Phil Taylor.
In 1972, darts staggered out of the pub and onto British primetime television, bringing with it a cast of – by today’s standards - unlikely sporting heroes. Today, discipline is key to sporting success but in those first moments when the game hit the bigtime, the greatest players mixed extraordinary skill at the oche with boozing, chain-smoking, and an open-door policy to fans and the media alike.
Yet it was this combination of skill and raw, unfiltered personality that brought in television audiences of over 10 million and created some of the most memorable characters in sporting history.
Against a backdrop of rising unemployment and unrest in 1980s Britain, darts brought entertainment and energy to British audiences. Join us as we explore the incredible journeys of three of the greatest names in darts, charting their rise, rivalries, heartache, and triumphs through the 1970s, ‘80s and ’90s.
The series features candid interviews with the darts stars of their day including “The King of Bling” Bobby George, John Lowe, Keith Deller, Bob Anderson, Dennis Priestley, Dave Whitcombe, Linda Duffy, Maureen Flowers alongside commentary from Richard Ashdown, Julie Welch, Peter Purves, infamous sports promoter Barry Hearn and the legend that is Phil “The Power” Taylor.
Nancy Strang, Executive Producer at Mindhouse, says: “Darts is now a huge television spectacle and one of the biggest sports in the UK, but the people that really put the game on the map were a cast of brilliant working-class players who emerged in the 1980s and who, with their remarkable talent and personalities, transformed the pub game into what it is today. This series is an opportunity to celebrate those players, to lean into this magnificent sporting subculture and the soap opera of their rivalries and lives; while reliving some of the greatest moments in the game’s history.”
Hayley Reynolds, Acting Director of Documentaries and Factual at Sky, added: “In the year of Dartsmania, we’re thrilled to be teaming up once again with the brilliant team at Mindhouse, to tell the origins story of a sport that really is like no other. Whether you are a darts fan or not, this series will set the scene for how this sport enchanted the nation and grew its fandom that we see today. Sky is proud to support such an epic sport across our various channels."
Dart Kings is a Mindhouse production, commissioned for Sky Documentaries by Hayley Reynolds, Acting Director of Documentaries and Factual. Kathryn Taylor is the Commissioning Editor for Sky. Executive Producers for Mindhouse are Nancy Strang and Emma Whitehead. The Series Producer is Claire McFall. Becks Chapman also produces and the Line Producer is Dejan Cancar.
Dart Kings will be coming to Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW in the new year.
