New Channel 4 digital original series Adrenaline Addicts with George King to explore some of the UK’s most extreme sports

29 June 2021

In 2019, 21-year-old urban free climber George King-Thompson made international headlines when he climbed The Shard without ropes. Now, in this new short-form digital series, George is travelling across the country to experience the UK’s extreme adventure scene; meeting other people who, like him, choose to undertake high adrenaline, potentially dangerous activities.

Featuring extraordinary footage of BASE Jumping, Bare Knuckle Boxing and Cliff Jumping, George takes us inside these fascinating and often controversial worlds and as he meets other ‘adrenaline addicts’, and seeks to understand their attitude to risk-taking, as well as his own. 

The activities in these films can only be carried out by highly trained experts. Do not attempt to recreate them.

EPISODES

EPISODE 1
ADRENALINE ADDICTS: BASE JUMPING
29 June 2021
George meets ‘Britain’s greatest’ BASE Jumper, Tim Howell, as he prepares to do an early morning jump from a cliff top in the Peak District. BASE jumping is an extremely dangerous pursuit, which involves jumping from a fixed object, before using a parachute to descend to the ground. 31 year-old Tim is an ex-Royal Marine Commando who has travelled all over the world to pursue his passion for BASE jumping and wingsuit flying. Featuring extraordinary footage of Tim’s previous jumps and wingsuit flights, as well as footage of the Peak District jump itself, George finds out how Tim prepares for a jump, physically and mentally and what drives him to take the calculated risks involved.

Watch Episode 1 here

EPISODE 2
ADRENALINE ADDICTS: Bare Knuckle Boxing
6 July 2021
George takes on the challenge of getting in the ring with Bare Knuckle Boxing Featherweight Champion, Rico Franco. Bare Knuckle Boxing (BKB) is an ancient sport, and often attributed as the original form of boxing. For years, fights were unlicensed in the backrooms of bars and social clubs, but in recent years, the sport has taken a more mainstream turn, with most licensed fights being fought in arenas and attracting large audiences. It’s a bloody and visceral sport, but 28 year-old Rico believes that BKB is safer for the boxers, as they tend to take less blows than in mainstream boxing with gloves. Rico talks to George about how he feels compelled to fight and the thrill he gets from it. He also opens up about the difficulties he’s faced in recent years, with a serious illness leaving him hospitalised and needing a Stoma bag. George has some experience of boxing as an amateur….how will he cope when face to face in the ring with a BKB Champion?

EPISODE 3
ADRENALINE ADDICTS: Cliff Jumping
13 July 2021

In this episode, George meets a group of Cliff Jumpers, who spend their downtime jumping off buildings, bridges and cliffs into the water below – performing complicated acrobatic moves on the way down. The media commonly refer to the activity as ‘tombstoning’, but the Cliff Jumping community don’t like to use that word. They see themselves as practiced and experienced extreme athletes. George, who’s more used to climbing up structures, than throwing himself off them, meets 28 year-old Chris Murphy from Liverpool, who spends the working week as a fibreglass technician, but when the weekend comes he can’t wait to meet up with his fellow Cliff Jumpers in search of the thrill of a jump. George joins Chris and his fellow jumpers as they undertake their next jump in and finds out the injuries they have suffered, what the risks are and why they choose to take them.

These short films will be available on Channel 4’s YouTube and Facebook accounts.

Parable, the production company behind Adrenaline Addicts also produced Channel 4’s short-form series, The Boy Who Climbed The Shard, which told the story of George’s climb up The Shard and was a huge success on social platforms, reaching over 10 million views.

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