Ralph Lee, Head of Specialist Factual
This year the profile of some of our programmes has been exceptionally high. We have garnered an impressive collection of awards, and had some very large audiences. The bar is high, and we want to set it higher.
Specialist Factual is a newly created department in Channel 4. It has a much broader remit than the old History Science and Religion department, with a greater range and number of programmes to commission. We are the home of some of the most intelligent and innovative television in the world, and are looking for big scale, groundbreaking programmes that are full of opinion, use new presenters, understand contemporary formats, kick against the grain and have the potential to spark a national debate. We are looking for big hits.
This year the profile of some of our programmes has been exceptionally high. We have garnered an impressive collection of awards, and had some very large audiences. The bar is high, and we want to set it higher.
Specialist Factual is a newly created department in Channel 4. It has a much broader remit than the old History Science and Religion department, with a greater range and number of programmes to commission. We are the home of some of the most intelligent and innovative television in the world, and are looking for big scale, groundbreaking programmes that are full of opinion, use new presenters, understand contemporary formats, kick against the grain and have the potential to spark a national debate. We are looking for big hits.
Programmes that spark debate
They should not be afraid of controversy and need to find the missing part of the jigsaw in contemporary discussion. The Great Global Warming Swindle programme t provoked extraordinary passions on both sides, and shifted the terms of reference for the Global Warming debate.
Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel was first-rate piece of journalism. Ultimately, when we look back at the year, it will be one of the things that has helped to keep Channel 4 angular, spiky, challenging, and different. We are actively seeking films of this kind, such as The Falling Man, Going Cold Turkey, and the Richard Dawkins Root of all Evil?, as well the forthcoming Enemies of Reason about Science under attack from Pseudo-science and superstition.
They should not be afraid of controversy and need to find the missing part of the jigsaw in contemporary discussion. The Great Global Warming Swindle programme t provoked extraordinary passions on both sides, and shifted the terms of reference for the Global Warming debate.
Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel was first-rate piece of journalism. Ultimately, when we look back at the year, it will be one of the things that has helped to keep Channel 4 angular, spiky, challenging, and different. We are actively seeking films of this kind, such as The Falling Man, Going Cold Turkey, and the Richard Dawkins Root of all Evil?, as well the forthcoming Enemies of Reason about Science under attack from Pseudo-science and superstition.
Presenters
Presenters are becoming increasingly important. Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson, and DBC Pierre are three who we have used in the past year. All are passionate; all are very opinionated; all are capable of delivering arguments that really need an answer because of their scale and stature as presenters. However, none of them act just as tour guides to the subject matter that they present.
The BBC has had success with presenter-driven programmes recently. Channel 4 would not have commissioned Coast or Richard Dimbleby – for us they are simply too affirmative and too comfortable. They are about celebrating a rather easy idea of British heritage.
More appropriate for us would have been Andrew Marr’s history of C20th Britain - a series which depended on opinion and Who Do You Think You Are? in which the past and the present connect. Paddy Ashdown as a presenter used by Aaqil to great effect on his film about solving the crisis in the Middle East. Ashdown was able too turn his skills in conflict resolution into a TV format while at the same time delivering some really amazingly clearly thought-through answers about an intractable problem.
Presenters are becoming increasingly important. Richard Dawkins, Niall Ferguson, and DBC Pierre are three who we have used in the past year. All are passionate; all are very opinionated; all are capable of delivering arguments that really need an answer because of their scale and stature as presenters. However, none of them act just as tour guides to the subject matter that they present.
The BBC has had success with presenter-driven programmes recently. Channel 4 would not have commissioned Coast or Richard Dimbleby – for us they are simply too affirmative and too comfortable. They are about celebrating a rather easy idea of British heritage.
More appropriate for us would have been Andrew Marr’s history of C20th Britain - a series which depended on opinion and Who Do You Think You Are? in which the past and the present connect. Paddy Ashdown as a presenter used by Aaqil to great effect on his film about solving the crisis in the Middle East. Ashdown was able too turn his skills in conflict resolution into a TV format while at the same time delivering some really amazingly clearly thought-through answers about an intractable problem.
Distinctive Style
Our programmes are also marked out by a distinctive style. Our programmes can do really adventurous, different things with format. Gunther von Hagens forthcoming Gunter’s ER is about trauma injury, illustrated with anatomical experiments which look unique and are very informative about casualty and trauma injury. Going Cold Turkey, in which drug addicts came off heroin in a sort of live studio format, was a challenging idea which became a big success. Animals in the Womb used amazing pictures and images, the like of which had not been seen before, to illustrate a great story. The Human Footprint was the story of the impact one life has on the planet as told through a series of striking art installations. Those are all things that really distinguish us and point in the direction in which we are going.
Our programmes are also marked out by a distinctive style. Our programmes can do really adventurous, different things with format. Gunther von Hagens forthcoming Gunter’s ER is about trauma injury, illustrated with anatomical experiments which look unique and are very informative about casualty and trauma injury. Going Cold Turkey, in which drug addicts came off heroin in a sort of live studio format, was a challenging idea which became a big success. Animals in the Womb used amazing pictures and images, the like of which had not been seen before, to illustrate a great story. The Human Footprint was the story of the impact one life has on the planet as told through a series of striking art installations. Those are all things that really distinguish us and point in the direction in which we are going.
More4
More4 in ratings terms is going from strength to strength at the moment. We have had a lot of success with handover programmes. For example, Empire’s Children had a handover programme which effectively offered more about the characters by turning over to More4, and that delivered a full 10% of the audience from the main channel to the digital channel simply by making that direct connection. We are seeking more of those.
More4 in ratings terms is going from strength to strength at the moment. We have had a lot of success with handover programmes. For example, Empire’s Children had a handover programme which effectively offered more about the characters by turning over to More4, and that delivered a full 10% of the audience from the main channel to the digital channel simply by making that direct connection. We are seeking more of those.
New Media
There is a lot of expansion in new media applications of what we are doing. City of Vice, which is a heavily dramatised series about the Bow Street Runners coming up shortly has a very complex and interesting video gaming application which Channel 4 are putting up as a link to the series. As a lot of you will be aware, Channel 4’s education spend next year is going to be almost entirely new media rather than TV. A lot of those education programmes can link to the television programmes which we might commission.
There is a lot of expansion in new media applications of what we are doing. City of Vice, which is a heavily dramatised series about the Bow Street Runners coming up shortly has a very complex and interesting video gaming application which Channel 4 are putting up as a link to the series. As a lot of you will be aware, Channel 4’s education spend next year is going to be almost entirely new media rather than TV. A lot of those education programmes can link to the television programmes which we might commission.
Awards
Winning awards is an important objective for a department that aims to make the most inventive and high quality television in the world. We won the BAFTA for Specialist Factual this year for Nuremberg: Goering Last Stand, and also the Grierson for The Year London Blew Up, and Animals in the Wombwon the Popular Science and Natural History award at Banff.
Winning awards is an important objective for a department that aims to make the most inventive and high quality television in the world. We won the BAFTA for Specialist Factual this year for Nuremberg: Goering Last Stand, and also the Grierson for The Year London Blew Up, and Animals in the Wombwon the Popular Science and Natural History award at Banff.
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