Spring boarding off the success of Taskmaster with younger audiences, Junior Taskmaster will follow in the footsteps of the flagship comedy game show which sees Greg Davies (Man Down) and Alex Horne (The Horne Section) as Taskmaster and Assistant.
Linda goes on a journey of discovery and empowerment after hearing the news. Dusting off her old Triumph motorbike she last used 30 years ago, she travels solo to the Forest of Dean to do something for herself and reconnect with her identity.
She meets different characters along the way. These include the ‘Eel Sisters’, an exasperated local radio presenter, and a hermit living in the woods with only a wild boar for company. Cue the high jinks!
4 Post Production (4PP) will give five mid to senior level people from underrepresented backgrounds the chance to progress their careers in the sector.
Over six months, they will receive mentoring from senior figures in the industry, bespoke skills training, and shadowing and placement opportunities. Each of the five, be they craft or technical talents, will be offered positions with Channel 4's production company partners.
After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, many companies worldwide issued statements of solidarity and support, and posted black squares on their websites and social media feeds. In the UK, the movement galvanised the TV industry. Broadcasters took stock of the sometimes paltry proportion of their output they were commissioning from black people. ITV announced a Diversity Acceleration Plan while Sky pledged £30m to support anti-racism and improve diversity and inclusion. As a result, there was an uplift in demand for diverse talent, on-screen and behind the camera.
Predictably, Fleet Street was outraged. Queer as Folk, foamed the Daily Mail, “proves that we need censorship… we shouldn’t be at liberty to watch naked actors having relentless homosexual sex”.
Some commentators in the gay press were also critical, arguing that the series should have been less celebratory and angrier about the tragedy of Aids. But, if you are being attacked from both sides, perhaps you are doing something right. Most television viewers and critics certainly thought so as they marvelled at Russell T Davies’s breakthrough drama series.
The biennial Cambridge Convention will take place on Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 September 2023 at King’s College, Cambridge.
The agenda-setting programme, titled Too Much to Watch, will bring together influential thought leaders and prominent executives to debate the opportunities and impact of changing consumption habits reshaping global television.
Successful applicants will work within entertainment, factual, factual entertainment and sport, with some candidates getting the chance to work on the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
The training scheme will begin with a week-long bootcamp, where trainees will hear from previous scholars as well as Commissioning Editors, to get a taste of what it takes to be in the industry. After this, their TV careers will officially begin, as they enter a 12-month paid scheme as a trainee researcher or trainee production coordinator.
The female-led series follows Toni (Leah Brotherhead), a mother and unsuccessful actress, and her assortment of friends as they struggle through life against the backdrop of Kingston upon Hull.
Maggie (Coughlan) and Eddie (West) will be forced to see if their decade long friendship will survive into their thirties, as the return of Maggie’s bipolar disorder compels Eddie to consider whether the friendship is worth maintaining.
It didn’t seem possible, but Taskmaster is about to get even more juvenile. Channel 4 is adapting the show to a children’s format, driven by the rise in the Taskmaster viewing figures with younger audiences.
The success of School Tasking, the not-for-profit primary school outreach project which replicates Taskmaster games in schools, was also motivation to bring the show to children’s programming.
