and about the man who runs it. Not something the BBC would have done.
At 9pm, the channel is keen to renew factual entertainment shows and find the next generation of returnables. Past titles such as betty’s Undateables or Child Genius, from Wall to Wall, are shining examples here, programmes that were incredibly involving and followed human stories. Fremantle’s Grand Designs is another that fits the bill: ordinary people doing extraordinary things. More recently Handmade: Britain’s Best Woodworker, from Plimsoll, has been a success for the channel. And coming up is The Academy from South Shore, which takes a look at children who are trying
to get into Crystal Palace football club. The whole families’ dreams are invested in these little kids, aged from six to twelve. It’s a different way into other worlds.
TOPICAL
In the 10pm slot there have been stand-out topical films, such as Fremantle’s 60 Days on the Streets or ScreenDog’s Smuggled, or this year’s BAFTA winning The School that Tried to End Racism, from Proper Content. It’s about folding human stories and human dramas into a situation without it feeling like a current affairs documentary. The channel is always looking for dramatic ways to say
something about the current situation.
What Channel 4 doesn’t make any more is a show where people are put in a house and left to battle it out. It’s now about putting people in extraordinary situations, or making them go through some journey. Where people are doing something challenging and dramatic, going through a process, but also shedding light on current affairs.
If you’re still counting, then the fifth basket is an ever-present need for quality popular documentaries. Think of Caroline Flack, Her Life and Death, which did incredibly well for the channel and on All4. It has been commissioning more in that space. Coming up is Gemma
Collins: Self Harm and Me which shows a different side of the ITV reality star.
Often access is key. If you have access to an institution or person that would appeal to the Channel 4 audience, it’s always worth taking it to the channel.
In the last couple of years, Channel 4 has started to advertise pitching into specific pots of money, like the Global Format fund or the Contestable Pot fund. These are sometimes across genres, with different deadlines and terms and conditions. It’s a good opportunity to focus on a specific brief, with money attached, a deadline and a decision to be made after that deadline. More will be coming through, so watch this space.
WHAT’S NEXT AT CHANNEL 4
After the lock-down success of Grayson’s Art Club, which led to an exhibition of viewers’ artwork, a second series followed, with an exhibition about to launch in Bristol. There’s a momentum to bring
through new voices on the channel, such as Yinka Bokinni, who presented Acme Films’ single Damilola: The Boy Next Door. Bokinni is now presenting new late night, topical discussion programme Unapologetic, from SBTV and Cardiff Productions, while The Boy Next Door’s director Ashley Francis-Roy is also working on a new C4 programme. In the factual entertainment realm
of big audacious constructs, there’s The Simple Life, from Five Mile Films, an epic adventure where 25 people are coming together on a farm in Devon for six months to live as an Amish community. It’s an experiment that’s being taken deadly seriously, asking the big question, ‘is modern life bad for us?’ Also from factual entertainment, there’s Fremantle’s 60 Days with the Gypsies, a follow up to Ed Stafford’s 60 Days on the Street and timed to coincide with The Police and Crime Bill going through parliament, proposing to criminalise nomadic gypsies.
Grayson’s Art Club Swan Films
Unapologetic SBTV and Cardiff Productions
The Simple Life Five Mile Films
60 Days on the Street Fremantle
See the Televisual Factual Films at
televisual.com 07
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