Channel 5 Chief Content Officer, Ben Frow, has set out his slate of UK originals across factual and drama.
Frow showcased the commissions at an event to mark the launch of the new combined brand for Channel 5 and My5, 5, that unites the broadcaster’s linear and streaming platforms.
Along with Channel 5’s drama originals, factual and kids’ programming from Milkshake!, 5 will feature a “significantly expanded” content offering drawn from Paramount’s family of brands, including BET, CBS, Comedy Central and MTV Entertainment Studios and some of the hits from Paramount+. 15 new FAST channels, curated from some of Paramount’s most popular shows, are also available on 5’s streaming service including Police Interceptors, 5 Cops, Bargain Loving Brits, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, The Yorkshire Vet, Geordie Shore, Catfish, Teen Mom, MTV Reality and Milkshake!.
Speaking at the 5 Showcase event on 12 March, 5’s Chief Content Officer, Ben Frow set out his slate of UK produced content for 2025.
New series include The Feud starring Jill Halfpenny, Rupert Penry-Jones, Amy Nuttall and Larry Lamb; The Au Pair starring Sir David Suchet; Cat and Mouse (previously announced as Catch You Later) starring Jason Watkins and Robson Green; new crime drama Mrs Felton’s Murder Mysteries (previously announced as Puzzle Lady) starring Phyllis Logan; a new adaptation of the Reverand Richard Coles’ murder mystery, Murder Before Evensong starring Matthew Lewis and Amanda Redman; and The Rumour starring Joanne Whalley and Emily Atack.
It was also announced today that 5 has secured the UK broadcast rights for Mammoth Screen’s six-part period drama, The Forsytes – the major reimagining of John Galsworthy’s novel series, The Forsyte Saga and starring Francesca Annis.
There will also be the return of hit favourites with new series including All Creatures Great and Small, Madame Blanc and The Good Ship Murder.
Ben Frow also confirmed Drama of the Week – a new strand of single one-hour standalone dramas featuring household names which will start to air from Autumn. Working with producers, Vertigo Films and LA Productions on the initial commissions, the drama strand’s production will help support low-income talent in writing, directing and production roles.
In unscripted and factual content, Ben Frow announced a range of new shows across multiple genres including a major new season, Lawless Britain which takes a “provocative” look at crime and the justice season in modern Britain. The season includes new social experiment The Sentence: You Be The Judge presented by Anne Robinson which will reconstruct real sentencing hearings and give viewers the chance to decide on the sentence they think a convicted criminal offender should get. The season also looks inside one of Britain’s most troubled jails, in HMP Wandsworth: Fit For Purpose?. Hunting the Shoplifters follows a multi-agency task force tackling shoplifting head on, and Lawless Britain: Catching the Street Thieves explores how communities are taking matters into their own hands; and in Dan Walker on Death Row, the 5News host takes an “unflinching” look at the divisive issue of capital punishment in the United States. The season also includes a powerful one-off drama, The Trial (wt) exploring a chillingly plausible near future in which parents are held legally responsible for the crimes of their children.
Michael Palin returns to 5 with a new adventure, this time exploring Venezuela in Michael Palin in Venezuela (wt) whilst Alexander Armstrong embarks on an epic journey across one of the world’s rising superpowers in Alexander Armstrong in India; and Jane McDonald travels from Antarctica to the Arctic in Jane McDonald: From Pole to Pole.
In history, Bettany Hughes explores the Seven Wonders of the World in a new three-part series, whilst Rob Rinder and historian, Ruth Goodman travel back in time, immersing themselves in some of the most turbulent moments in history through the contrasting lens of both the privileged and the impoverished people of that time in Rich Times, Poor Times.
In natural history, there’s two-part series The Secret Life of Bees where naturalist Steve Backshall looks at the impact that bees have on our lives; and in The Language of Trees the three-part series explores the hidden world of the Earth’s incredible trees. Comedian and presenter Dara O’Briain also returns to 5 to explore the power of the world’s volcanoes in Volcano with Dara O’Briain.
In new four-part series, Platoon, 5 goes behind the scenes with new recruits joining the infantry of the British Army.
There will be new returning series for Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, The Yorkshire Vet, Cause of Death, Murder Suspect No 1 and 22 Kids and Counting.
Staff Reporter
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