CHANNEL 5 NEWCOMERS RUBY WAX, ROSS KEMP AND TIM PEAKE JOIN JAY BLADES AND ALEXANDER ARMSTRONG AS OVER 40 HOURS OF NEW CROSS-GENRE COMMISSIONS ANNOUNCED FOR 2023

Channel 5 announces ambitious new factual and drama slate
Astronaut Tim Peake to front a major new series
Ruby Wax is marooned on a desert island in Castaway
Ross Kemp returns to drama in brand new series Blindspot
Stellar British cast announced for new drama The Inheritance
Alexander Armstrong and Jay Blades front brand new series
Michael Palin set to return in new undisclosed project

LONDON: Wednesday 25th January:  Channel 5 has announced a raft of cross-genre commissions for 2023 – from brand-new factual and unscripted formats to dramas and recommissions of popular returning series.

The brand-new series and formats cover a wide breadth of topics and areas from travel, family, and animals to ‘blue light’ shows, history, drama and ‘event’ TV.  With an exciting array of talent from Michael Palin and Tim Peake, to Ruby Wax, Jay Blades and for drama Ross Kemp, Robert James-Collier and Gaynor Faye joining an existing Channel 5 line up including Stephen Fry, Anneka Rice, Dan Walker and Jeremy Vine.

The new commissions were announced at Channel 5’s Upfront, hosted by Chief Content Officer, Ben Frow – and follow a hugely successful period for the channel as it grew its audience share for the fourth consecutive year in 2022, the only public service broadcaster to have grown over each of the last four years. 

British astronaut Tim Peake will take viewers on a journey into space in a mission to uncover the mysteries of the universe in 3 x 60’ series Tim Peake: Secrets of Our Universe.  Michael Palin and Alexander Armstrong make a welcome return to Channel 5, continuing their explorations of countries around the globe; and comedian Ruby Wax gets marooned on a desert island in a new two-part survival series Ruby Wax Castaway (w/t).

Closer to home, Jay Blades steps back in time to learn more about the extraordinary history of London’s East End - the area where he grew up - in Jay Blades: History of the East End.

Following the amazing and heroic work of the emergency services, a further two commissions take an altogether different view of life.  In Forensics: Murder Scene, cameras follow the scientific support unit and homicide investigation team of one of the country’s largest police forces, West Yorkshire Police.  Each episode follows one case from investigation to 999 call and sentencing.

In three-part series Traffic Cops: Crash Scene Investigation, we follow the challenging and painstaking work of the North Yorkshire Police crash investigation team. With unique and unprecedented access each episode covers the entire investigation, from the life-saving attempts at the crash scene to the final coroners decision, as investigators try to provide answers for the families involved.

And for something with humour and heart, six-part series Wife on Strike (w/t) takes a fresh look at domestic life.  Live-in partners say enough is enough as they hand over the sole running of the house – and all the mayhem and madness that goes with it – to their unwilling and ill-prepared other halves.   

Following the huge success of its drama slate in 2022, Channel 5 has commissioned a number of new scripted shows for 2023.  In The Inheritance, Robert James-Collier, Gaynor Faye and Jemima Rooper play siblings who are left reeling after the unexpected death of their Father, played by Larry Lamb.  Secrets are exploded, relationships ripped apart, and lives lost as they try desperately to claw back their inheritance and make sense of what is happening around them, asking is blood really thicker than water? 

Ross Kemp makes his return to acting after 15 years to star as Police Detective Tony Warden in four-part thriller Blindspot.  Kemp is cast, alongside newcomer Beth Alsbury who plays Hannah, a disabled woman with a wry sense of humour, who believes she has witnessed the prelude to a murder while monitoring the CCTV on a rough estate.   Undeterred when her fears are dismissed by the apathetic, and possibly corrupt, policeman in charge of the case, Hannah finds her own life in danger as she fights to discover what really happened in the blind spot. 

The brand-new titles join hugely successful returning series including Susan Calman’s Grand Day Out, The Yorkshire Vet, Motorway Cops, Cause of Death, All Creatures Great and Small, Dalgleish and currently on air, The Madame Blanc Mysteries – just a few of the formats and dramas enjoying further outings later in the year.  In addition to last week’s announcement of the new five-year deal recently signed with ITN to continue to produce both 5 News and Jeremy Vine, demonstrating Channel 5’s ongoing commitment and investment in news and current affairs.

Other new content coming to Channel 5 in 2023 includes: new Ben Fogle series, Endurance: Race to the Pole; The Pet Psychic; Challenge Anneka; Nick Knowles into Death Valley and dramas including the soon to air The Catch; Black Cab and The Good Friend.

Paramount’s Chief Content Officer, UK, Ben Frow said: “Our aim is to deliver an exciting, diverse and eclectic schedule of originated content for our viewers that reinforces our public service remit, whilst demonstrating how the creative and the commercial can work hand-in-hand to make exciting and rewarding television.  Of course, it always helps to be working with such stellar talent!”