Channel 4 Unveils Slew of New Programming

LONDON: There are a wealth of new shows coming to Channel 4, including the French supernatural crime thriller Rebound (Les Revenants).

Jay Hunt, the chief creative officer at the channel, announced a number of new programs coming to Channel 4. Among them, The Murder Trail features the first-ever use of remotely-operated cameras being placed inside a British criminal court to capture a murder trial in its entirety. In another first for the network, Channel 4 is marking the month of Ramadan with a special season of programming dedicated to British Muslims.

Human Swarm uses cutting-edge science to explore changes in weather and how it leads to differences in human behavior. Do You Speak English? looks at the 1 million immigrants who are living in Britain and are on the edge of communities because they cannot speak English. The show will watch as four first-generation immigrants try to learn the language for the first time.

Skint (working title) follows the lives of a group of people who are either on long-term unemployment, have never worked or are growing up without any expectation of working. Channel 4 has recommissioned Utopia and My Mad Fat Diary for 2014, while acquiring Rebound, an eight-part series that was a big hit in its native France.

David Mitchell hosts the new entertainment series Was It Something I Said?, which sees two teams taking part in a battle of word play. Peter Kay returns to Channel 4 with a brand-new one-hour special, Malachy’s Millions, in which he plays a self-made millionaire who trades in his luxury lifestyle to live undercover in a destitute former mining town.

The Grand National will be broadcast for the first time on Channel 4 this April, with a range of programming building up to the horse race as well. This includes What It Takes to Win the Grand National, which draws on the testimony of jockeys. On the eve of the event will be the celebrity-filled special Alan Carr Specstacular and on the day of the race Sunday Brunch.

Hunt said: “After a dramatic end to 2012 with award winning Paralympic coverage, live drugs tests and crashed planes, we have started 2013 at the same pace—finding a King in a car park, building our own bionic man and exposing a major political scandal.

“We are continuing to take risks and innovate in the months ahead with experimental factual like Easter Egg Live, channel defining new comedy like Man Down and London Irish, and powerful documentary like Educating Yorkshire and Skint.

“In the same vein, we’re also commissioning the sorts of shows only four would make—exploring multiculturalism in Do They Speak English, using cutting-edge science to understand how weather affects human behavior, and by delivering TV firsts like Murder Trial and daily morning prayers as part of the Ramadan season.

“I’m also delighted that channel defining pieces like Dennis Kelly’s Utopia and Rae Earl’s Mad Fat Diary will be returning to the channel, alongside the acquisition of an exceptional new French sci-fi crime thriller, Rebound.”