91Èȱ¬ Four Winter/Spring 2008
91Èȱ¬ Four reveals the curse of comedy in a powerful season of dramas
A season of dramas telling the story of the extraordinary and often turbulent off-camera lives of some of our best known comedians headlines the Winter/Spring 2008 season on µþµþ°äÌý¹ó´Ç³Ü°ù.
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The Curse Of Comedy reveals the turmoil and heartache found behind the laughter created by five great entertainers who rose to fame during the Sixties.
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David Walliams takes on his "dream role" in Frankie Howerd – Rather You Than Me, a moving drama revealing the comedy icon's private battle with stage-fright, bouts of depression and inner conflict about his homosexuality.
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Hughie Green was the avuncular frontman of the hugely successful family television shows Opportunity Knocks and Double Your Money. Off-screen however, his life was complex; his professional rivalry with Stars On Sunday presenter Jess Yates and his serial womanising produced an explosive secret. Trevor Eve stars in Hughie Green, Most Sincerely.
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Jason Isaacs and Phil Davis portray Harry H Corbett and Wilfrid Brambell, the stars of hit sitcom Steptoe And Son, in a poignant tale of two incompatible men bound together by success in The Curse Of Steptoe.
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Hancock And Joan tells the story of Tony Hancock's love affair with his best friend's wife and his battle with drink – with Ken Stott and Maxine Peake in the lead roles.
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Janice Hadlow, Controller, 91Èȱ¬ Four, who recently returned to the channel following a sabbatical last year, says:
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"As 91Èȱ¬ Four prepares to celebrate its sixth birthday next month I'm delighted to have returned with it in such great shape and with an exciting line-up of bold and original programmes to look forward to. I'm particularly pleased that we've attracted such a strong line-up of big name talent to this season of dramas."
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The dramas are accompanied by three programmes looking back at other defining moments of the Sixties.
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For one nostalgic night The Frost Report Is Back! with Sir David Frost. There is also the first major profile of comedian Marty Feldman and a look at how the 91Èȱ¬ responded to a more tolerant post-war era in Auntie's War On Smut.
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Mad Men
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Continuing with the Sixties theme, Mad Men, the latest series from Matthew Weiner, Emmy Award-winning writer and the man behind The Sopranos, has its UK premiere on 91Èȱ¬ Four this winter.
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Set on and around Madison Avenue – home of America's ad agencies in Sixties New York and the "Mad" of the title – this sophisticated, morally ambiguous drama series delves into the lives, loves and professional ambitions of the ruthlessly competitive men and women working at Sterling Cooper advertising agency.
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Mad Men is accompanied by three documentaries looking at the changing face of advertising in both the UK and the US.
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Medieval season
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A major season of programmes turns the spotlight on all things Medieval.
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Janice Hadlow says: "Last year our successful Edwardians season suggested just how many aspects of modern life took their origins from the Edwardian era. This time we're trying to do something quite different.
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"We're travelling back to a world in which many of the most basic technologies simply didn't exist. This was also a world which had a completely different conception of the importance and role of the spiritual life.
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"What we're hoping to do with this season is get people to look again at a time which is remote but also fascinating, rich and strange."
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In Inside The Medieval Mind, Professor Robert Bartlett, one of the world's leading authorities on the Middle Ages, looks at the intellectual landscape of the medieval world.
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Through four programmes entitled Knowledge, Sex, Belief and Power he reveals medieval man's fascination with the supernatural; their approach to sex and courtly love; their stringent class system; and their understanding of the world around them.
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Aside from the Black Death nothing did more to change the nature of medieval Britain than the invention of printing. In Stephen Fry And The Gutenberg Press: The Machine That Made Us, Stephen Fry explores how print democratised knowledge by making the written word accessible to all.
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Other programmes include Dr Alixe Bovey uncovering the oldest road map in Britain; Michael Wood piecing together the life of a 14th-century Hertfordshire woman; and Kris Marshall and Geraldine James starring as audacious villains intent on breaking into Westminster Abbey to steal the king's treasure in Heist, a drama based on historical events.
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Sacred Music
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Renowned actor and former chorister Simon Russell Beale presents Sacred Music, the biggest classical music series from the channel to date, and the first British television series to explore this period of music history in depth.
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In a story spanning six centuries, this four-part documentary series contains a mix of personal, political and musical stories and features some of the greatest music ever written, all performed by award-winning choir The Sixteen with its director Harry Christophers.
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Documentaries
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Jews is the new series from award-winning director Vanessa Engle who made the acclaimed series Lefties. A set of unique and personal stories about faith, identity and community, this series documents different aspects of contemporary Jewish life in Britain but, in each case, highlights the dilemmas facing both religious and secular Jews today.
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The Modern Childhood season examines different aspects of 21st-century childhood with three unique authored pieces from award-winning and critically acclaimed film-makers:
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My New Best Friend is a moving observational documentary that explores one of the most significant turning points in a child's life – the transition from primary to secondary school.
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In Painted Babies Growing Up, Jane Treays follows up her acclaimed 1995 Painted Babies by revisiting the unique world of the baby beauty pageant queen.
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Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go, from Kim Longinotto, follows the extraordinary stories of children at the Mulberry Bush boarding school, many of whom have suffered severe emotional trauma, are frequently violent and have been excluded from school.
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For the first time, 91Èȱ¬ cameras have been able to film inside Tibet unsupervised by Chinese authorities. Following the lives of ordinary Tibetans across an extraordinary year, A Year In Tibet reveals an intimate portrait of a society and a compelling insight into the impact the Chinese government has on Tibetans' lives.
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Focusing on a small town in rural China, Chinese School tells the story of one academic year in the life of family, teachers and children through individual stories of hardship, joy and success.
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Storyville, 91Èȱ¬ Four's flagship international documentary strand, continues with a season of programmes marking the 60th anniversary of the creation of the State of Israel.
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Janice Hadlow says: "I'm incredibly proud to be bringing such a strong range of documentaries from some of our most exciting film-makers to the channel.
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"Last year I was overwhelmed by the huge response to Bulgaria's Abandoned Children and I'm also delighted to be able to announce that we have commissioned a follow-up to this incredibly impactful film."
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Other highlights
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Today, surgery saves hundreds of thousands of lives a year. However, it wasn't always that way. In Blood And Guts – The History Of Surgery, Michael Mosley tells the bloodstained tale of the blunders, arrogance, mishaps and mistakes that shaped the evolution of modern medicine.
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Jonathan Meades travels from Flanders to Finland in search of the essence of "northernness" in Jonathan Meades – Magnetic North.
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Motor City's Burning – Detroit From Motown To The Stooges tells the story of how a city famous for building cars also put together some of the greatest music of the 20th century.
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The Worlds Of Fantasy looks at how and why fantasy has come to top the bestseller lists and broken box-office records.
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Finally, Kirsty Wark hosts The Book Quiz, in which well-read contestants, authors and other high-profile guests compete to show off their knowledge and love of books.
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Notes to Editors
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- 91Èȱ¬ Four continues to grow in reach and share with 7.4Ìýmillion viewers of the channel each week.
- The channel has reached 45% of adults in multi-channel homes so far this year (weeks one to six) versus 40% for the same period of 2007 and 37% for the same period of 2006.
- The channel got off to a great start this year with the Pop season contributing to three weeks in excess of 1% share in transmission hours and strong reach at 15.0% v 12.6% in transmission hours for 2007 average. Documentaries in the season such as Pop On Trial and Pop Britannia were also strong (over 400,000).
- Fanny Hill was the stand out programme for 91Èȱ¬ Four in 2007 (1.2m/5.5% share in multi-channel homes). Its success helped the channel to achieve record highs for reach and share. Themed nights and seasons also did well last year with Stephen Fry Night helping the channel to its best daily share of viewing (2.83% across transmission hours).
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EDA
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