Factual commissions from indies new to Channel 4

8 March 2012

Ralph Lee

 

Channel 4's Factual commissioning department, headed by Ralph Lee today announces three commissions with production companies new to the Channel.
True Stories: Glory Road (w/t), from perfectmotion ltd,  provides intimate access to several young athletes as they strive for a chance to make the GB Olympic boxing squad in 2012;  Fishing for Trouble (w/t) from Bigballs Films which follows TIME magazine's Africa Bureau Chief Alex Perry as he gets under the skin of some of the most remote and conflicted locations through a shared love of fishing and Plant Detectives (w/t), an ambitious new six-part series which aims to discover how plants can offer an understanding of Britain's changing landscape and other forms of wildlife - from  Cwmni Da.

Head of Factual Ralph Lee says: "As these new commissions demonstrate, we are committed to ensuring we are accessible to new suppliers and are always seeking to increase the range of production companies and talent we work with."

 

True Stories: Glory Road (w/t)
Glory Road (w/t) has exclusive access to fighters emerging from the shadows of Liverpool's  Rotunda Amateur Boxing Club and The Golden Gloves to become potential Olympians. The film features Natasha Jonas who doesn't look like your average fighter, she's 27 and beautiful; 20 year-old James 'Jazza' Dickens' whose path to the Olympic squad seems secure but the need to earn money for his family could mean abandoning the utopian dream of amateur glory at The Olympics and local hero Tom Stalker, 27, who has gone from stealing cars for teenage kicks to becoming Great Britain's Captain.

Glory Road (w/t) is the directorial debut of photographer Steve Read, who captures gritty urban images and stories of working class struggle. The producer is Rob Alexander. Commissioned by Anna Miralis for the True Stories strand which showcases the best of feature-length documentaries, it follows the fortunes of these ordinary Liverpudlians over1000 days as they strive to achieve their extraordinary goal for 2012.

This 72 minute documentary is Brighton-based perfectmotion ltd's first commission for Channel 4. The director is Steve Read and the executive producer is Morgan Matthews. Documentaries Editor Anna Miralis says: "This film will give intimate insight into the lives of young Olympic hopefuls, who let us in to the battles they face both in and out of the ring. With candour and warmth, these boxers will show their unique fighting spirit in the build-up to the monumental challenge that awaits them."

 

Fishing for Trouble (w/t)
Commissioning Editor Tanya Shaw has ordered this 30-minute broadcast pilot presented by TIME magazine's Africa Bureau Chief Alex Perry, a veteran correspondent who has covered more than 20 wars, including Iraq and Afghanistan, across Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The film follows Perry as he casts a line into waters in one of the world's most challenging and treacherous locations and gets under the skin of the people in a remote and conflicted area, through a shared love of fishing. The team is currently filming in The Sudd, in South Sudan, one of the world's largest wetlands and one of the last uncharted places on the planet.  Perry is trying to catch his first Nile Perch, a species that can grow up to six feet long.  

Channel 4 Commissioning Editor Sara Ramsden said "Bigballs Films has brought one of the world's leading Africa experts to work at Channel 4. As Alex Perry fishes for Tiger Fish, the scariest fish in the world, in the newest country in the world, we are very excited about this innovative new way to look at stories in Africa from a fresh angle."

Richard Welsh Creative Director at Bigballs Films says: "Bringing together adventure travel, war journalism and fishing and fronted by an experienced foreign correspondent who's not afraid to get his hands dirty in the pursuit of a story, Fishing for Trouble sets out to dive beneath the headlines and uncover the bigger stories and larger-than-life characters in the countries it visits. Brave and beautiful in its simplicity, it's typically Bigballs, and aims to bring complicated and nuanced issues to a younger audience who wouldn't normally engage with current affairs programming." 

BAFTA-nominated and Rory Peck-Winner Nick Read is directing (Dispatches: Slumdog Children of Mumbai; Inside Israel's Jails, Dispatches: Britain's Street Kids). 

 

Plant Detectives (w/t)
Plant Detectives (w/t) is an ambitious new six-part series that aims to discover how plants can offer understanding of Britain's changing landscape and other forms of wildlife. With increasing interest in what the outdoors has to offer, this series offers an exciting and engaging window into our own ‘green and pleasant land', and a crucial snapshot of Britain's biodiversity from the ground up.

The series is presented by new talent: Royal Horticultural Society gold medallist and landscape gardener, Chris Myers and his labrador, Lottie; one of Britain's top botanists Dr Trevor Dines and Lichenologist Sally Eaton. Together, using innovative approaches they will investigate our wildlife, analyse the changes that have taken place in the British landscape and flora over the past 50 years, and discover why and what it means for our natural environment now and in the future. 

Each week, Chris and a team of expert botanists will join forces with local naturalists to search our cities and countryside and discover what grows where in Britain today and why - using bold experiments, exciting plant hunts in unexpected places and by comparing species distribution maps dating back as far as 1962. Plant Detectives (w/t) will also present some surprising and challenging information about the state of our natural history, looking ahead to reveal what the future may hold for our natural environment and the great British backyard.

The 6 x 30min series has been commissioned by Jill Fullerton-Smith and is produced by Cwmni Da (Good Company), based in North Wales. The executive producer is Neville Hughes and the series producer is Arwyn Evans.

Executive Producer Neville Hughes said: "Having been producing regional and international co-productions for many years, it's great to have an opportunity to cut through onto British network telly. It'll be quite a challenge with three totally new presenters in an area that's new for Channel 4, but we are determined to create an ambitious series which actually makes botany feel sexy!"