W channel

Stacey Dooley to hit the States for a second series of sleepovers

The first series saw Dooley stay with Autumn, a 9-year-old GunTuber (someone who shares their collection of weapons on YouTube) who lives with her parents in Oklahoma, Mya and Kennedy, a transgender mother and father living in Virginia, and Cheryl and Quran, a Georgian couple with a 37 year age gap.

The new series will explore similarly modern themes, including attitudes to love, relationships, marriage, parenting and money. More information on the families and locations Dooley is visiting will be revealed in due course.

UKTV announces new W documentary series Katie Piper: Babies Behind Bars

Piper will talk to female prisoners who are trying to come to terms with what the future looks like for their children while trying to negotiate a prison term.

Over five episodes, Piper will explore the different ways women and their children are treated in the US judicial system and how they cope with the difficult prospect of having to give up their babies while they serve their time. 

UKTV commissions The Beauty Rewind Clinic

The series will be hosted by BBC Radio 1 presenter Vick Hope and industry leader in non-surgical procedures Dr Esho. 

The pair are on a mission to get the UK back to being au naturel, but are the nation ready to give up their cosmetic procedures?

Each episode will see Dr Esho help people who want to turn back the clock on years of social media inspired procedures, supported along the way by Hope. 

The last year has seen many influencers and celebrities wishing to go more natural, dissolving their fillers and removing their implants.

UKTV rebrands W and takes the channel free-to-air

The broadcaster will also make the channel available on its video on demand service UKTV Play, aiming to increase the footprint of W and its programme offering.

Upon its launch, viewers will be able to access many hit UKTV Originals, plus brand new upcoming series Alex Jones: Making BabiesRochelle Humes: Interior Designer in the MakingNurses on the Ward and Dating With My Mates, and new series of Stacey Dooley Sleeps OverMasterChef USAAustralia and Canada, and Inside the Ambulance.

Myleene Klass to discuss miscarriage for new W channel documentary

Having experienced her own pregnancy losses, Mylene Klass will open up on her trauma to help break the taboo that often surrounds the subject.

Klass said: "I think I needed to make this because I needed to watch this. After my miscarriages I had to try and find some answers, some peace, some solidarity with people who've been through it too.

“You just don't want to feel alone because the defining feeling of miscarriage is feeling alone."

Emma Willis presents new series Emma Willis: Special Births

Emma Willis (Credit: UKTV)

The special – produced by Firecracker Films – follows on from last years series, Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, and will show never-before-seen footage of last year’s births at Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Willis meets both the babies and their parents six months after the initial filming and discovers how life has changed for them since leaving the maternity ward. 

W's PR drama Flack returns for series two

Credit: UKTV

Set in London, Flack focuses on the high-stakes world of celebrity PR. It follows Mills Paulson PR agency as it works to keep their clients most outrageous indiscretions firmly behind closed doors.

Series one saw PR Robyn (Anna Paquin) finally face the consequences of her numerous addictions, as her work and home life collided catastrophically.

With her relationships damaged beyond repair, and even her own sister rejecting her, Robyn realises she needs to make a change.

The creators of Flack discuss scriptwriting at RTS Futures event

But a new high-profile drama from UKTV, Flack, starring Anna Paquin as a smart, scheming PR, was arguably ahead of the curve when the idea was first conceived by British writer Oliver Lansley seven years ago.

An RTS Futures audience heard how the show had gone through several iterations before it was eventually commissioned by UKTV’s head of scripted, Pete Thornton.

Flack was originally a half-hour comedy, then a one-hour drama and subsequently morphed into its current form – a 45-minute comedy drama that makes its debut on UKTV drama channel W this week.