Factual

25 October 2012

WW1 Season (More4) (11 November 2012)

On the eleventh of the eleventh, More4 will be marking remembrance Sunday by airing some of Channel 4's best programming about World War One including Fighting The Red Baron and Ian Hislop's Conscientious Objectors. The programming will also include specially-commissioned brand new short films featuring some of Britain's finest actors reading war poetry from that period. In individual short films, to air throughout the evening, Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings), Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace), Sophie Okonedo (The Slap, Criminal Justice) and Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire, This is England,) will  each read two poems by Siegfried Sasson, Rupert Brooke and Wilfred Owen.   

 

What The Nazis Really Thought (w/t) (Nov 2012)

This fascinating docu-drama brings to life the verbatim conversations of German prisoners of war. This unprecedented record of loose talk between battle-hardened soldiers was secretly recorded while they were incarcerated in British POW camps during WW2. Uncensored and unmediated by any self-editing or interrogation, these stolen conversations provided key intelligence that helped the Allied war effort and reveal in more chilling detail than ever an insight into the hearts and minds of the German fighters.

In total, more than 100,000 hours of these secret recordings were made. Only now have they all been declassified, researched and cross referenced. They represent a startling new body of evidence with which to revisit events of the war and show how Nazi ideology and brutality was embraced by the Generals, officers and rank and file of the German army; perhaps the most damning proof yet of their complicity in Nazi war crimes.

 

Hillbilly Holiday (Dec 2012)

In a brand new 3 x 60 series for Channel 4, comedians Sean Lock and Jon Richardson (team captains of 8 out of 10 Cats) are kissing their urban creature comforts goodbye and setting off to explore the wilds of the US of A. They're going to see how real men live.

From the Cajuns of the Atchafalaya Swamps in Louisiana to the bluegrass hillbillies of North Caroline to the survivalists of Colorado, there are still places corporate America fears to go. Richardson and Lock will be cast off into these forgotten backwaters and new frontiers - where Darwin's survival of the fittest meets the American Dream.

 

Gogglebox (w/t) (early 2013)

Britain is a nation of telly addicts - the average UK adult watches a total of four hours and two minutes of television every single day - and everyone has an opinion. In this brand new 4 x 45 mins television review programme, households across the UK will be commenting freely on the best and worst television shows of the past seven days from the comfort of their sofas, living rooms, kitchens and even their bedrooms. 

These avid TV viewers are the experts when it comes to what's on the box; they are entertaining, outspoken, emotional, and irreverent and not only do they love to watch telly, they love to talk about it too. Gogglebox (w/t) will showcase the best of the nation's sofa-loving ‘Royle families' to witness and capture their hours spent in front of the telly. 

 

The King in the Car Park: Richard III (early 2013)

In this one-off history programme, Channel 4 follows the extraordinary hunt for the remains of Richard III, one of the most notorious Kings of England - beneath a council car park in Leicester.

The dig made remarkable breakthroughs including the ruins of a medieval friary, and human remains which show evidence of near-death trauma and curvature of the spine. These remains have been sent for forensic tests to establish whether they have indeed discovered the last English King to have been killed in battle. The DNA material will be tested to see if it matches that of a 17th-generation descendent of the monarch's sister with the results revealed in the programme.

Frankenstein: Building the Bionic Human (early 2013)

Scientists have long dreamt of creating an artificial human, while - for just as long - there have been warnings about the potential consequences.This summer's Paralympics demonstrated just how far modern technology has come in its ability to replace body parts and even improve abilities, while developments in regenerative medicine, robotics and artificial intelligence are advancing at dizzying speeds.

Now, for the first time, this science documentary brings together a team of robotics experts to attempt to build a complete human body. The experiment is using $1 million-worth of cutting edge limbs and organs borrowed from some of the world's leading research centres and manufacturers.

Psychologist Bertolt Meyer, who has a bionic hand himself, wants to find out how close bio-technology is to catching up with - and even surpassing - nature, exploring the technologies at the forefront of bionics and investigating their potential impact on our future.

 

The Hotel & One Born Every Minute (Jan 2013)

The emotionally-charged BAFTA winning One Born Every Minute is back for a fourth series, returning to the labour ward at Leeds General Infirmary, where the Yorkshire midwives open their doors to mums from across the county; from a mother with the highest risk cardiac case the unit has ever seen to a couple who featured in the last series who are pregnant once again. 

The Hotel, now in its third series, returns to the much-loved Grosvenor Hotel, Torquay, as manager, Mark Jenkins, attempts to upgrade, ditch the coach parties and attract a wealthier type of guest to keep the ailing hotel afloat.