Channel 4 has world-class reputation in Documentaries and the department strives to keep innovating in one of the most challenging areas of television. Recent successes have seen the reinvigoration of ‘precinct' documentaries with humanity and humour, often using installed camera rigs in series such as One Born Every Minute and 24 Hours in A&E. We have broadcast high-profile single films in the Cutting Edge strand including Katie: My Beautiful Face and Living with Brucie. Another key area is challenging and purposeful documentaries and drama-documentaries such as 9/11: Phonecalls From The Towers and The Taking Of Prince Harry, these can also be topical pieces such as Miliband Of Brothers. Documentaries also manifests itself in formatted and accessible series such as The Secret Millionaire and The Fairy Jobmother.

International documentary is principally focussed on More 4's critically acclaimed True Stories strand, including award-winning documentaries such as Mugabe and The White African, Dancing Boys of Afghanistan and The Cove.

Editors commission across all of the department's output, but they do so through a ‘point person': Mark Raphael oversees singles and edits the Cutting Edge strand; Aysha Rafaele oversees talent strand First Cut and formatted series and is increasingly bringing in series at 9pm/10pm too; and Anna Miralis oversees international doc strand True Stories on More 4. She is also responsible for acquisitions and co-productions.