Channel 4

This week's Top TV: 12 - 18 September

Hooten and the Lady confront hair-raising obstacles as they travel the globe in search of hidden treasures (Credit: Sky)

Monday

Celebrity Home Secrets

ITV, 8pm


Janet Street Porter (Credit: ITV)

In this show, famous faces revisit their former homes to share memories and secrets from when they lived there.

This week we get an insight into the colourful life of Janet Street Porter as we look back at her various homes, including the ‘castle’ she built in the middle of London.

RTS Midlands July conference

Joe Godwin, Head of BBC Birmingham (Credit: BBC)

At the RTS Midlands Centre conference, Joe Godwin, director of the BBC Academy and BBC Birmingham, discussed training and apprenticeship schemes, as well as the success of BBC Drama.  

The diversity workshop was chaired by former BBC community affairs correspondent Barnie Choudhury, and featured actor and broadcaster Phina Oruche, BBC head of business development Tommy Nagra and Godwin.  

Choudhury asked whether diversity had been “highjacked by those who want to stop creativity”, prompting an impassioned debate. 

Will Charles Gurassa succeed as chair of Channel 4?

There is never any shortage of top-quality candidates competing to land the job of chairing Channel 4, but Ofcom looks to have played a shrewd hand by appointing an unsullied newcomer to this key role.  

Businessman Charles Gurassa is personable and speaks calmly and quietly. He has none of the overriding self-importance common to those as successful as this veteran of the travel industry and several bruising corporate battles. 

Why broadcasters need religious literacy

"My generation grew up thinking that religion was completely marginal to British life, which, as for the rest of the world, has been proved more and more wrong,” historian Simon Schama famously said.

In this, if in little else, Schama and I have something in common. Born in the same year, I was also carried along on the wave of 1960s optimism, which assumed that everyone was basically good, life was getting better for all, and reason would triumph.

More programming for 10-14s in Channel 4's remit

Existing hits Gogglesprogs, Educating ..., and the Richard Osman-fronted Child Genius will be renewed alongside all new commissions, as the broadcaster boosts its spending on content aimed at young teens from £3million to £5million a year.

Targeting the audience of Channel 4's 8pm slot, the initiative also aims to provide wider learning experiences in the form of animated online shorts accompanying their shows, made available on their website and app All4.

The Polygamist comes to Channel 4

The Polygamist (w/t) takes a peak at the daily rituals and practices of 15 families living in a small township, whose homes are carved into the face of a vast sandstone rock and where more than half of residents are involved in 'plural marriages'.

The four-part series is produced by KEO Films, who made the refugee documentary The Exodus: Our Journey To Europe for BBC2 and current Channel 4 reality show Eden

This weeks’ top TV: 22 – 28 August

One of Us will explore morality, human nature, and family secrets (Credit: BBC)

Monday

Sarah Beeny’s Four Rooms

More 4, 9pm


Sarah Beeny (Credit: Channel 4)

RTS award-winning Four Rooms is back with a new host, Sarah Beeny. A cross between Antiques Roadshow and Dragons' Den, the programme sees members of the public try and sell their prized items to stone-faced dealers for a good price.