Throng

As time is very nearly called on the Big Brother House, Channel 4 looks to the future with a rich and varied autumn line up featuring major drama serials from Shane Meadows and William Boyd, brand new comedy talent Morgana Robinson in primetime and a range of ambitious new factual shows. 

Julian Bellamy, Acting Chief Creative Officer, Channel 4, said:

“This is an exciting time for Channel 4 as we enter a period of creativity and innovation with more freedom to try new things. We’re putting brand new comedy talent Morgana in the heart of the schedule, we’ve backed major dramas including Shane Meadows’ stunning TV debut and the sumptuous Any Human Heart, and we’ve got the hottest show from America this season, The Event. 

Channel 4’s Head of Comedy, Shane Allen, has commissioned a 5 x 30min series from brand new comedic talents Morgana Robinson, Tom Davis and Terry Mynott. 

After receiving a taster tape of Morgana’s material, Allen commissioned a non TX pilot. On the strength of this, the relatively unknown, up-and-coming comic has been offered her own comedy show in Channel 4 peak time. The series is produced by John Noel’s Running Bare Pictures, and executive produced by John Noel and James De Frond. 

Channel 4 is set to launch a new nightly comedy series which will focus on topical material.

The series will be entitled The Late List and will hit screens at 11pm with each episode shot the same day to keep it on top of current events.

Channel 4 is yet to confirm any hosts or guests for the new series but have confirmed that the presenting team will feature both new and established talent.

A Channel 4 spokesperson said: "Made up of a combination of celebrity guests and comedy VTs, The Late List will bring you everything you need to know about 'today', whether it's news, entertainment, sport or anything else that may prove a springboard to great comic material. Essentially, if it's not on The Late List, it's not worth knowing. [The series] will be informative, fresh and, above all, funny!"

Sky Broadband will be the new sponsor of Film on the Channel 4 Network, in a major 12-month deal announced today.

The deal – which was brokered by Mediacom Beyond Advertising and begins today - includes the sponsorship of peak-time transmission of films across Channel 4 , E4 and More 4, as well as showing on their corresponding ‘+1' channels.

The sponsorship will also extend to Channel 4 HD, E4 HD and the daily early evening film on Film4 and Film4 HD.

Films included in the package range from premieres to mainstream blockbusters, homegrown British films, genre-defining and cult classics and foreign film. The style of the sponsorship bumpers will follow on from the ‘Broadband Happily Ever' marketing campaign, and initially focus on the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

A new crime drama is bound for Channel 4 with the network commissioning a min-series called Top Boy.

The 4-part drama will centre on a group of young gang members in east London.

Behind the project is writer Ronan Bennett who has worked previously on the likes of gangster flick Public Enemies and TV drama The Hamburg Cell and Fields of Gold.

The story of young Dushane, a 19-year-old rebel who runs a street gang in Hackney, is based on first-hand research by both Bennett and story consultant Gerry Jackson who are both Hackney natives.

The BBC Trust has today approved the BBC's involvement in Project Canvas, subject to a number of conditions.

Project Canvas is a joint venture between the BBC and six other partners – Arqiva, BT, Channel 4, Five, ITV and Talk Talk - to develop and promote a common standard that will allow viewers with a broadband connection to watch on-demand services and other internet content as well as ordinary TV content, all through their television sets.

Peter Andre has landed himself a $1m gig as a chat show host on UK’s Channel 4.

The Aussie-born pop star has signed on as host of a new hour-long show which will see him grill celebrity guests on anything he sees fit.

37-year-old Andre, a reality regular after featuring on I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here and Katie And Peter with his now ex-wife model Katie Price, will also appear on a new reality series called Peter Andre: Going It Alone.

“He’s a natural and is delighted that Channel 4 will give him free licence to grill his guests in an irreverent way," a source told The Daily Mirror newspaper in the UK.

“It will be a late-night format aimed at the 16 to 30s. So he won’t have to mind his Ps and Qs and can have some fun in a series that’s due to air in the late (Northern Hemisphere) summer.”

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Channel 4 have announced that C. Montgomery Burns will take over as Channel 4 chairman 27th January. Ofcom have confirmed his appointment.

Burns joins the broadcaster’s board immediately as chairman-designate and will be a key figure in appointing Andy Duncan’s replacement as chief executive.

He currently owns Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is also a leading member of the Stone Cutters. He has also been involved in the Lil Lisa Recycling Plant, Burns Slant Drilling Co, owner of a basketball team and Burns Media. It is thought he may have to step away from the latter for fear of compromising his role at Channel 4.

The news has caused some controversy with animal welfare supporters angered at Burns' use of flying monkeys and attack dogs... not to mention the poisoning of the local environment and the blocking out of the sun with a giant machine.

In a UK first, Channel 4 is to put their entire back catalogue of programming online, giving viewers the chance to catch some of the broadcasters classic shows such as Father Ted, Brass Eye and Queer as Folk.

Set to be made available for free via the networks 4oD (on demand) catch up service, there will also be a selection of key episodes from the networks soap Brookside which ended in 2003 as well as comedies Vic Reeves Big Night Out, Ali G and Teachers.

Channel 4 has of course been the breeding ground for many other groundbreaking comedy series, such as The Comic Strip Presents... series starring Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French among others, while other hoped for comedies include Chelmsford 123, Drop the Dead Donkey, That Peter Kay Thing, Smack the Pony, Whose Line is it Anyway and The Harry Hill Show.

Channel 4 is going to give us all the chance to watch their entire back catalogue, completely free of charge as they become the first UK broadcaster to put all their old shows online. This means we get the chance to watch some of the best independent comedy shows that have ever aired on TV.

From July, the broadcaster will be making roughly 10,000 programmes from the archives available to view on the 4oD catchup service.

The Random Bandits are back again with the 4th instalment in the series, featuring more jokes and shenanigans then you can shake a stick at!!!

Check out the latest twisted takes on the world that will make you feel good, with The Flys, Shoe Horn and cult here Dave Beeline below now.

To catch up and watch all of the four films in the Random Bandits series head to http://www.myspace.com/KickersUK

Don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for the final film when its released on June 1st.

A proposed video-on-demand service jointly run by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, known as 'Kangaroo' has been blocked by the Competition Commission. It was decided that the service would pose too much of a threat to similar ventures.

Chairman of the Competition Commission, Peter Freeman, said: "After detailed and careful consideration, we have decided that this joint venture would be too much of a threat to competition in this developing market and has to be stopped.

"BBC Worldwide, ITV and Channel 4 together control the vast majority of this material, which puts them in a very strong position as wholesalers of TV content to restrict competition from other current and future providers of VOD services to UK viewers. We thought the joint venture parties would have an interest in doing so, in order to make Project Kangaroo a success."

from New York City ... reviews of Meadowlands (your Cape Wrath) ... not quite a rave (yet) ... but the series has possibilities ... overview (no spoilers) at Intriguingly Miasmic Meadowlands, with links to reviews of each episode...