Ed Stafford

The new shows are part of a deliberate drive by the channel to offer distinctive content, in a bid to beat competition from streaming services and other broadcasters.

At the launch of the new slate, Ian Katz, the channel’s Director of Programming, said he wants to focus on “entertaining, mischievous and innovative shows about the big issues and arguments in Britain today.”

He added: “Many of the shows [launching in 2019] are not ones that the global digital giants, even as they plough billions into new content, would be remotely interested in making.”

Ed Stafford: Left For Dead is the latest survival show from explorer and presenter Ed Stafford.

The new series, which will premiere this autumn, sees Stafford battling extreme environments around the world - think subtropical forests, dry deserts and uninhabited mountains.

Stafford has quite literally been dropped in the wilderness with a camera and no survival kit and has just 10 days to reach human civilisation. With nothing but his wit and will about him, he must rely solely on his survival instincts.

Ed Stafford is more than an adventurer. The first man to walk the length of the Amazon is also a film-maker of some repute. At an RTS Futures event, he presented a self-shooting masterclass illustrated by clips from his survival programmes.

In 2008, equipped with cameras from Ginger TV (the company that hired him), Stafford set out from the Peruvian Andes to begin a 9,700km quest to walk the Amazon.

In 2008, equipped with cameras from Ginger TV, Stafford left the Peruvian Andes to begin a 6,000-mile quest to walk the Amazon. Two and a half years later he reached the mouth of the river and, despite receiving just “half a day’s filming training on Streatham Common” before he started, Stafford had enough footage for a two-part series, Walking the Amazon, which was shown on Channel 5 and Discovery in 2011.