TW
The future looks bright for Channel 4...
Media Guardian posted:
Royalty, binge-drinking and terrorism are put under the microscope this autumn on Channel 4.
And the network's own culinary royalty, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, are also returning with two new series.
Channel 4 is also rounding off a bumper year critically and ratings-wise with biopics about the late Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth I.
The Queen's Sister is set in the debauched, swinging socialite scene of Britain's post-war decades and charts the controversial life and loves of Princess Margaret, the "original wild-child" of the modern British monarchy.
Newcomer Lucy Cohu plays Margaret, with David Threlfall as Prince Philip and Toby Stephens as Anthony Armstrong-Jones.
Another fiercely independent royal woman, Elizabeth I, is brought to life by Helen Mirren, who stars, along with Jeremy Irons as the Earl of Leicester.
Contemporary dramas on Channel 4 this autumn highlight one of the curses of modern British life - binge drinking.
Legless, made by Red Productions is what C4 calls "a graphic and timely feature-length drama about Britain's drink culture".
Another topical issue, terrorism, is covered by Channel 4's history department in The Year London Blew Up: 1974.
The docu-drama about the provisional IRA's year-long bombing campaign investigates how London has coped previously under continuous threat of terrorist attack.
Chefs Oliver and Ramsay return to Channel 4 in two brand new series. Jamie's Great Escape sees the celebrated chef take a break from improving the nation's school dinners to head to Italy and re-discover his passion for Italian food.
Meanwhile, Ramsay finds a new way to do food on TV in The F Word, a topical, weekly show which he hosts with restaurant critic Giles Coren.
Channel 4's trademark Friday night comedy and entertainment is given a boost with three new shows for the autumn, including Rock School.
The seven-part series sends wild man of rock, Kiss bass player Gene Simmons, to a 450-year-old English boarding school to see whether he can turn a group of 13-year-old pupils into head-banging rock gods.
Another programme that explores the implications of modern life is The Baby Race. The major four-part series looks at the implications of putting off having a baby until later in life. as it follows 35 single women in their mid-to-late thirties over an entire year as they desperately try to fulfil their dream of having their own child.
Other highlights include Alive - a new five-part series about survival - made by Darlow Smithson, the company that made Channel 4's Bafta award-winning film Touching the Void.
And Channel 4 will also mark two significant military anniversaries - the Somme and the Battle of Trafalgar.
Next year's 90th anniversary of one of Britain's worst military disasters will be explored in a documentary, The Somme.
And the Trafalgar Below Decks season honours the 200th anniversary of Britain's greatest naval victory by looking at what life was like for the ordinary men and women of Nelson's navy.
The season includes a specially commissioned drama, The Trafalgar Surgeon, and documentary Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.
Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud is also returning with a new show, Demolition. The four-part series is the antithesis of BBC2 hit Restoration, as it invites viewers to vote for the buildings they would most like to see demolished.
The much-publicised Priest Idol, which sees a newly qualified US priest, Father James McCaskill, taking up the challenge to turn around the fortunes of a failing Yorkshire church will also air later this year.
And the network's own culinary royalty, Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay, are also returning with two new series.
Channel 4 is also rounding off a bumper year critically and ratings-wise with biopics about the late Princess Margaret and Queen Elizabeth I.
The Queen's Sister is set in the debauched, swinging socialite scene of Britain's post-war decades and charts the controversial life and loves of Princess Margaret, the "original wild-child" of the modern British monarchy.
Newcomer Lucy Cohu plays Margaret, with David Threlfall as Prince Philip and Toby Stephens as Anthony Armstrong-Jones.
Another fiercely independent royal woman, Elizabeth I, is brought to life by Helen Mirren, who stars, along with Jeremy Irons as the Earl of Leicester.
Contemporary dramas on Channel 4 this autumn highlight one of the curses of modern British life - binge drinking.
Legless, made by Red Productions is what C4 calls "a graphic and timely feature-length drama about Britain's drink culture".
Another topical issue, terrorism, is covered by Channel 4's history department in The Year London Blew Up: 1974.
The docu-drama about the provisional IRA's year-long bombing campaign investigates how London has coped previously under continuous threat of terrorist attack.
Chefs Oliver and Ramsay return to Channel 4 in two brand new series. Jamie's Great Escape sees the celebrated chef take a break from improving the nation's school dinners to head to Italy and re-discover his passion for Italian food.
Meanwhile, Ramsay finds a new way to do food on TV in The F Word, a topical, weekly show which he hosts with restaurant critic Giles Coren.
Channel 4's trademark Friday night comedy and entertainment is given a boost with three new shows for the autumn, including Rock School.
The seven-part series sends wild man of rock, Kiss bass player Gene Simmons, to a 450-year-old English boarding school to see whether he can turn a group of 13-year-old pupils into head-banging rock gods.
Another programme that explores the implications of modern life is The Baby Race. The major four-part series looks at the implications of putting off having a baby until later in life. as it follows 35 single women in their mid-to-late thirties over an entire year as they desperately try to fulfil their dream of having their own child.
Other highlights include Alive - a new five-part series about survival - made by Darlow Smithson, the company that made Channel 4's Bafta award-winning film Touching the Void.
And Channel 4 will also mark two significant military anniversaries - the Somme and the Battle of Trafalgar.
Next year's 90th anniversary of one of Britain's worst military disasters will be explored in a documentary, The Somme.
And the Trafalgar Below Decks season honours the 200th anniversary of Britain's greatest naval victory by looking at what life was like for the ordinary men and women of Nelson's navy.
The season includes a specially commissioned drama, The Trafalgar Surgeon, and documentary Rum, Sodomy and the Lash.
Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud is also returning with a new show, Demolition. The four-part series is the antithesis of BBC2 hit Restoration, as it invites viewers to vote for the buildings they would most like to see demolished.
The much-publicised Priest Idol, which sees a newly qualified US priest, Father James McCaskill, taking up the challenge to turn around the fortunes of a failing Yorkshire church will also air later this year.
