Fresh Meat House

26 September 2012

Fresh Meat is the highly successful Channel 4 comedy drama about the hilarious and painful truths of being a student created and written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong with an award-winning team of writers. Away from home for the first time, on the brink of adult life, the Fresh Meat housemates discovered who they really are, coming face to face with every conceivable drama; from one night stands, to drug overdoses, popularity contests, affairs, and drink and money problems.

To coincide with series two of this multi award-winning drama Objective Productions Scotland and Maverick Television's multiplatform team have come together to create, Fresh Meat House, giving fans the chance to explore the housemates' digs, get to know the inner squalor of each of their bedrooms and maybe, just maybe learn a little about leaving home in an online version of the student house.

The award-winning writing team behind Fresh Meat have created a range of exclusive video content featuring each of the main characters building on the in-show storylines released at the end of each episode, exploring key themes such as sexuality, living away from home, bereavement, relationships and break-ups, financial woes, careers and making money, cyber bullying and the dangers and pitfalls of sharing too much online.

Updated weekly, the site will allow users to explore each of the housemates' rooms, uncovering a virtual treasure trove of fun, free content, from going through JP's Google search history to delving into Josie's email folder, and a heap of other playful interactive tools, giving an intimate glimpse into the lives, loves and sordid bedrooms of the Fresh Meat crew.

Genuine advice and support is given throughout the site, whether accessed through Josie's plentiful supply of Student Union leaflets, Vod's spectacularly skewed budget calculator, or the weekly instalments of advice from the somewhat morose Student Counsellor Nadine - whose only appearance this series is online - offering bittersweet comedy monologues for every episode, all designed to help teens as they take their first steps away from home.

 

Fresh Meat House will launch 9th October directly after transmission of the first episode on Channel 4. Go to www.channel4.com/freshmeathouse for a tour of the student digs and to watch exclusive content released at the end of each episode.

 

Prod Co.: Objective Productions Scotland and Maverick Television

Executive Producers: Judy Counihan, Claire McArdle and Paul Murray

Commissioning Editor: Gemma Brady

Site build and design: Numiko

Fresh Meat House is a new commission from Channel 4's Education team who have a focus on life skills for young people.

 

Press Contact: Danya Agababian| danya@ladburypr.com | 07779 635147

 Picture Publicist: Charles Fearn | cfearn@channel4.co.uk | 020 7306 8516

Notes to editors

 

About writers Keith Akushi, Tony Roche and Tom Basden

Keith Akushi began writing comedy at university before performing sketches and stand-up at the Edinburgh Fringe. His first play Hostage won the 2010 ‘Harry Porter Prize' for best new comedic play. Keith has just finished directing the sell out Cambridge Footlights tour of the UK and USA. He is developing original comedy with ITV Studios, Objective, BBC and Comedy Central and was a key collaborator in the development of the Fresh Meat House site.

 

Tony Roche is an award winning comedy writer and producer, best known for his work on The Thick of It, In the Loop, Veep and of course Fresh Meat. In partnership with the other writers, Tony came up with original material for Howard FM, the student counselor Nadine as well as other bespoke scenes. He also directed the content that will appear on the website that coincides with the first 4 episodes.

 

Tom Basden is a British actor and comedy writer who was this year nominated for a BAFTA. He has written and performed extensively for comedy shows on the BBC and Channel 4 and was a key writer in both series 1 and series 2 of Fresh Meat.

 

About Maverick

Maverick has a long history of working with Channel 4 Education, including Ideasfactory and 4Talent, as well as the original series of Embarrassing Illnesses - the website for which has now clocked up close to 25 million visits. More recently projects such as Gok's Teens: The Naked Truth helped give teen confidence, working with schools and the PSHE Association as well as faces including Gordon Ramsey, Alesha Dixon, Fearne Cotton, Jack Whitehall and Catherine Tate. Maverick's multiplatform team has picked up numerous awards for its work, including four BAFTAs, an Emmy and three RTS Awards.

 

About Objective

OBJECTIVE PRODUCTIONS is based in London and Glasgow and has rapidly become one of Britain's most influential independent production companies. Responsible for producing ground-breaking comedy, entertainment, and magic shows for a range of television broadcasters including Channel 4, BBC, ITV, E4, Sky, Discovery, Comedy Central and UKTV.

Objective Productions has also presented spectacular live theatre performances, including illusionist and magician Derren Brown's Laurence Olivier Award-winning British theatre tours.

Objective Productions shows have won BAFTAs, RTS Awards, British Comedy Awards, Rose d'Ors, Monte Carlo Golden Nymphs, South Bank Show Awards and many others including a Guinness World Record and has also received well over 50 further award nominations for its productions.

 

About the Birmingham Student Services Division

Birmingham Student Services Division worked with Maverick to provide the advice within the Fresh Meat House site. Assistant Director Jean Turner drew on 20 years of experience dealing face-to-face with students in crisis to advise on all aspects of information given within the site guiding the Maverick team on what to cover within each section, the best sources of help and support and a run-down of the most common problems they address on a daily basis. This allowed Maverick to tailor the Fresh Meat House content to ensure it gave the best help possible.