Channel 4

Written by best-selling author and self-coined ‘romcomoisseur’ Bolu Babalola (Love in Colour), Big Age will follow four young Black-British friends attempting to grow up and step out while faced with parental expectation, personal dreams and the demoralising reality of insufficient funds.

Inspired by the Nigerian quip “At your big age!”, which is equal parts loving and mocking, commanding and encouraging, the series will explore the intense friendship of four funny, contemporary and surprising comic characters.

The hour-long film Football Trolls (w/t) will explore the growing calls for social media companies to address online trolling after Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Raheem Sterling were targeted with nearly 2000 discriminatory tweets in the 24 hours following the Euro 2020 final.

For the last six months, Jermaine Jenas has been tackling the issue head on by interviewing Premier League footballers who have been subjected to online abuse, sharing his own personal experiences and confronting the trolls who hide behind their screens.

The anthology aims to promote upcoming film-makers in the UK, with exciting talent writing and directing each film.

This series will explore the effects of mental health in families through different genres, including romantic comedy, road trip and horror.

Mincemeat

Written by Samantha O’Rourke and directed by Nadira Amrani

A dramedy about a young woman, Jane, struggling to cope with her controlling mother who suffers from hoarding disorder.

When Nish enters the scene, Jane is lovestruck, and he could be the means of escape she’s been looking for.

I Literally Just Told You will be the first game show in history to provide all the answers to the contestants while the questions are written as the show goes on.

Commenting on his inspiration for the show, creator Richard Bacon said: “I Literally Just Told You just feels like a natural Channel 4 show, who are a perfect fit for this, and it’s irreverent nature takes me back to my Big Breakfast days.

When Television approached me to assess the success, or otherwise, of the British TV industry policy announcements related to diversity over the past 12 months, I was going to resort to a standard journalistic approach: pick a few of the big announcements, look at what they promised to deliver and then conveniently conclude by saying something like “...but careers take longer than 12 months to build and systemic racism cannot be dismantled in a year. So, it is still a case of ‘wait and see’.”  

On 18 November 1996, Hansard noted a parliamentary question from John Whittingdale, MP for Maldon: “Will my Hon Friend congratulate Channel 4 on its success in avoiding recourse to the ‘safety net’ and on making a profit last year of £128m? Does that not demonstrate that it is possible for Channel 4 to meet its remit and to operate commercially? Will he therefore consider its privatisation at the first opportunity?” 

The four-part series will see Leith trade in cake for compost, as she parts with her home and lovingly manicured garden of nearly 50 years to move in with her husband John Playfair. 

However, she has a two-acre sized problem in the form of the overgrown garden around the new modern barn that she and Playfair have designed. 

Strewn with rubbish, rubble, rusting buildings and overgrown vegetation, there is little of a garden left. 

Hosted by Joel Dommett, the new reality game show will explore how hard it is to know who to trust in the modern world of dating.

Subverting familiar dating show tropes, The Love Trap will see twelve women all compete over a series of dates to win the affection of one single man.

However, only half of the women will be hoping to win the bachelor’s heart. The other six will be hoping to stay in the game with the hope of winning a huge cash prize.

Hosted by Craig Charles, the high-stakes quiz show sees contestants given a series of general knowledge questions, with the answers on moneybags that pass along a conveyer belt in front of them. 

The contestants will have to think quickly to grab the right answer and see how much that bag is worth. 

A bag with the correct answer can be work anything from £1000 to £100,000, but if contestants pick the wrong bag, they could lose everything.

Each week an eye-watering £1 million will pass down the conveyer belt, but it’s up to the contestants to grab it. 

With a multi-location format broadcasting from Tokyo, Leeds and London, Channel 4’s coverage will feature an all-star presenting team, over 70% of whom are disabled.

The Paralympic Breakfast Show, presented by Arthur Williams and Steph McGovern, and the live morning sports competition, hosted by Clare Balding, will air live from Leeds, the home of Channel 4’s national headquarters.