Spain's president 'at home' in fly-on-the-wall TV documentary 

A DOCUMENTARY series on TV starring Spanish president Pedro Sánchez and showing the 'human side of the Moncloa Palace' is currently being filmed by a Goya-winning director.

Curro Sánchez Varela, who won an award at the 2015 ceremony of Spain's national answer to the Oscars for his documentary on the late legendary flamenco guitarist lauded by Mark Knopfler, titled Paco de Lucía: La Búsqueda (Paco de Lucía: The Search') is behind the fly-on-the-wall showcasing the day-to-day in the official presidential residence.

Spain's national leader is not having to take time out from his agenda to shoot and re-shoot numerous takes – all that is shown on the series is live, unplugged and unrehearsed.

The production team, a joint effort between Secuoya Studios and The Pool, are simply following Pedro Sánchez around during his office work and meetings inside the Moncloa, and outside it, with the cameras running, and Sánchez himself has merely been told to act as though they are not there.

Whilst indubitably the star of the show, Sánchez – who would have turned 50 on February 29 this year, if such a date had existed – will not be the only 'character' in the series, as the film crew will visit other departments and offices to show what his cabinet and other, behind-the-scenes staff get up to.

This type of 'inside-the-ivory-tower' documentary has become a commonplace ratings-grabber in other countries, but is not a typical format for Spanish TV – politicians and Royals are generally only shown on screen when making speeches, presentations and other official engagements, rather than behind closed doors.

But the Moncloa documentary director says: “Now that we live in strange times, having the chance to get such an open, free and honest access to the day-to-day of the government president will allow us to appreciate, more than ever, the fact we live in a democratic country, in which all citizens' rights and freedoms are guaranteed.”

Curro Sánchez Varela continues: “We're aiming to show both Pedro Sánchez's faces – his institutional one and his human one – and also to pay tribute to that whole team of workers who, in many cases, have spent more than 40 years in service to different presidents of the democratic era within the Moncloa complex.

“As well as the combination of visual and narrative material that forms the bridge between film, documentary and the factual, we're trying to build an observational narrative that puts more personal and everyday aspects into the spotlight, distancing it all from purely political or ideological values.”

It has not yet been confirmed when the series will air, on which channel, or what its title will be, but anyone based in Spain will probably be able to catch it on one of the original analogue channels on television, or by streaming it online via the eventual channel's website.