Hidden Talent

How far can natural talent really go and what if it could change your life? Hidden Talent is a new six-part series which discovers people with extraordinary hidden talents they never even dreamed they had. Hundreds of randomly selected people are put through a series of tests to identify those with hidden abilities, and nine participants discover if they can go from being a total novice to a top class performer in record time.

Overseen by scientists and academics, over 900 people from all around the country undergo testing, and a number are found to have special physical, mental, sensory or creative talents - of which they were totally unaware. The Hidden Talent experts then take them on, training and developing them to face extraordinary challenges and push their newly discovered Hidden Talent to its limit, a process which could even change the rest of their lives.

Presenter Richard Bacon follows each of their progress - uncovering the amazing science which enables these individuals to achieve what others can only dream of. These talents range from latent linguistic skills that allow an individual to become fluent in a foreign language in just a few months, to the mammalian diving reflex enabling some people to hold their breath for up to four minutes and dive to a depth of 60 metres without scuba gear, or even an extraordinary sense of direction that makes someone a Human Sat-Nav, capable of finding their way through an uncharted wilderness.

The tests carried out on potential contributors are designed to assess aptitude rather than skills or knowledge, so viewers can also take part through specially designed interactive tests on the Channel 4 website (URL to follow). Mirroring those in the series, these absorbing and fun challenges are devised in consultation with the series' experts and give viewers the opportunity to uncover their own Hidden Talent - ranging from memory games and humming tasks to being a human metronome.

Developed and produced by Silver River, in association with American Express, this series explores how remarkable we are as human beings and reveals just what we could really capable of, using our Hidden Talent.

Prod Co: Silver River
Exec Prod: Helen Hawken
Series Prod: Spencer Kelly
Comm Ed: Jill Fullerton-Smith