Channel 4 are the latest broadcaster to announce their autumn/winter line-up, with quite a few shows catching my eye:
Peep Show returns for a seventh series;
The Inbetweeners are back for a third series;
Misfits is back for seconds (mid-October I've heard); controversial Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle has a stand-up/sketch-show hybrid called
Tramadol Nights; sitcoms
The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret,
Campus and
Phone Shop (all from last year's Comedy Showcase season); a social history of the '80s in
Alan Davies' Teenage Revolution; Gordon Ramsay has a new food show called
Best Restaurant; Jamie Oliver tries to reinvent fast food with
Thirty Minute Meals; drama
This Is England '86 from Shane Meadows; period drama
Any Human Heart (starring Jim Broadbent, Kim Cattrall, Matthew Macfadyen and Gillian Anderson); four-part drama
The Promise (starring Claire Foy and Christian Cooke); comedian Morgana Robinson gets her TV debut with
The Morgana Show; while US dramas
The Event and
The Pillars Of The Earth are the channel's big foreign imports this year.
Julian Bellamy, Acting Chief Creative Officer of Channel 4:
"This is an exciting time for Channel 4 as we enter a period of creativity and innovation with more freedom to try new things. We're putting brand new comedy talent... in the heart of the schedule, we've backed major dramas including Shane Meadows's stunning TV debut and the sumptuous Any Human Heart, and we've got the hottest show from America this season, The Event."
The full press release can be read below:
As time is very nearly called on the Big Brother House, Channel 4 looks to the future with a rich and varied autumn line up featuring major drama serials from Shane Meadows and William Boyd, brand new comedy talent Morgana Robinson in primetime and a range of ambitious new factual shows.
Julian Bellamy, Acting Chief Creative Officer, Channel 4, said:
"This is an exciting time for Channel 4 as we enter a period of creativity and innovation with more freedom to try new things. We're putting brand new comedy talent Morgana in the heart of the schedule, we've backed major dramas including Shane Meadows' stunning TV debut and the sumptuous Any Human Heart, and we've got the hottest show from America this season, The Event.
Add to this big, ambitious factual shows reflecting modern Britain in a way that has not been done before, Seven Days in Notting Hill, Coppers and Wedding House, Peter Tatchell on the Pope and key talent Katie Piper launching her first full series on the channel".
Channel 4's longstanding commitment to discovering new comic talent continues with the TV debut of Morgana Robinson in The Morgana Show. Stepping straight into a peak time slot on Channel 4, Morgana combines her own characters with wonderfully realised impressions of the likes of Fearne Cotton, Cheryl Cole and Boris Johnson.
The channel also welcomes one of the Britain's most viscerally talented comedians. Frankie Boyle's Tramadol Nights is a brand new six-part series combining Frankie's no-holds-barred stand up with pre-filmed sketches in which he picks apart all aspects of modern life.
Seven Days in Notting Hill is a new kind of documentary series in which viewers will be able to follow the lives of a variety of compelling characters as they actually happen. This is a docu-soap where viewers see events that have only just taken place. Through the accompanying website, viewers will be able to provide advice to the characters and may even influence some of their choices.
Another series capturing a slice of British life is Wedding House in which a team of experts take over a country manor house to play host to wedding ceremonies for 50 couples - with every moment captured on camera. There's one condition - once the bride and groom have had a chat about what their dream wedding would entail, they won't get to see a single thing until they arrive at the venue on their wedding day.
Following the phenomenal success and critical acclaim of This Is England, Shane Meadows (Somers Town, Dead Man's Shoes) revisits the lives of Shaun, Woody, Lol and the rest of the gang with a blistering four-part series. This Is England '86 is a story about growing up, and growing sideways, set against the backdrop of the Mexico World Cup at a time when Chris de Burgh is number one, Top Gun is filling the cinemas and over 3.4 million Brits are unemployed.
Jim Broadbent, Matthew Macfadyen and Sam Claflin all take on the lead role of Logan Mountstuart in William Boyd's adaptation of his best-selling novel, Any Human Heart. An all-star cast brings together Hayley Atwell, Natasha Little, Emerald Fennell, Ed Stoppard, Samuel West and Kim Cattrall alongside Gillian Anderson and Tom Hollander as the lovers, wives, friends and infamous figures that Mountstuart encounters throughout his ordinary and yet utterly extraordinary life.
Following last year's moving Cutting Edge film, Katie Piper returns in Katie: My Beautiful Friends, a new four-part documentary series, in which Katie uses her personal experience to help rebuild the lives and confidence of people like her who are fighting for normality while living with a disfigurement.
To mark the Papal visit in September, Human Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell presents an hour-long examination of Pope Benedict XVI. Featuring interviews with critics and supporters alike, the programme explores the Pope's personal, religious and political journey since the 1930s, as well as the motives and effects of his controversial policies. The Pope (w/t) provides a serious assessment of the impact of Benedict XVI after five years in office and examines the conflict between some of his values and those held in modern Britain.
The Event is an emotional, high-octane conspiracy thriller making its UK premiere on Channel 4 just weeks after its Stateside debut. Sean Walker (Jason Ritter) is an everyman who, while investigating the mysterious disappearance of his fiancée Leila (Sarah Roemer), unwittingly begins to expose the biggest cover-up in U.S. history.
With unprecedented access to four police forces, Coppers (w/t) shows the police as never seen them before, revealing what it's really like to be on the front line in 21st century Britain. Coppers gives ordinary police officers the chance to say what they really think of the people they have to deal with on our behalf, while mini-cameras in cars and mounted on helmets allow viewers to get up close and personal with the police and the people they come up against.
Packed with archive footage and home videos, Alan Davies' Teenage Revolution provides a unique social history of the 80s through the prism of Alan's own teenage experiences. It is a personal journey exploring two inter-linked stories spanning the decade: Davies' own experiences growing up in suburban Britain, and the seismic social, cultural and political changes that made the country what it is today.
Firing the starting gun on Channel 4's commitment to the Paralympic Games and broadcasting two years to the day before the London 2012 Paralympic Games begin, Inside Incredible Athletes profiles some of the elite British athletes - from both a personal and a scientific perspective. Examining their demanding training regimes and the particular skills required for high performance at each sport, this 90-minute programme features stunning sporting performance sequences, filmed against a backdrop of iconic locations around London - directed by Mike Christie (Jump London).
A brand new magazine show, Food, tells viewers everything they need to know about the food they buy and where it comes from. Presenters Jay Rayner, Anna Richardson and roving reporter Ravinder Bhogal examine the truth behind British food production to challenge and inform consumers and the UK's food suppliers, and encourage new ways of supplying and shopping for food.
Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver return, each with brand new series. Ramsay's Best Restaurant seeks out the finest British restaurants up and down the country. From John O'Groats to Land's End, diners have nominated thousands of restaurants as their favourite local eatery. Chef Ramsay sets out to put their culinary skills to the test before finally crowning the best of the best. And if the budget won't stretch to eating out, tune into Jamie's Thirty Minute Meals. The chef's new 40-part tea-time series promises to teach anyone how to cook a complete meal in just 30 minutes, by sharing his tricks of the trade for smart ideas to preparing amazing food super-quick. In each fast-paced programme Jamie cooks a whole meal from scratch, without a ‘here's one I prepared earlier' in sight.
Robert Webb makes his solo debut on Channel 4 with a new comedy show offering an alternative take on the week's online news. Robert's Web scours the internet for the funniest tweets, the most talked-about uploads, the weirdest new Facebook groups and the best celebrity websites.
And Robert returns, alongside David Mitchell, in Peep Show as the critically acclaimed sitcom enters a record-breaking seventh series on Channel 4 - becoming the longest running comedy in the channel's 28-year history.
BAFTA-winning comedy The Inbetweeners also returns for another series packed with more excruciating teenage mishaps and embarrassing attempts to pull, while Comedy Showcase success story PhoneShop gets a full series as part of E4's autumn line-up.
Another Comedy Showcase alumni gets a full series on More4. In The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret the eponymous American Margaret (David Cross) bluffs his way into an apparently great job opportunity, heading up the sales team in his employer's London office. The only problem is he knows nothing about British culture… or indeed anything about sales. And to add to his problems he spectacularly fails to impress Alice (Sharon Horgan), the first beautiful girl he meets.
And Hollyoaks continues this autumn with a wave of explosive storylines across the main show and Hollyoaks Later, while everybody's favourite ASBO teens return for a new series of the BAFTA-winning drama Misfits on E4.
