Channel 4

Tony Robinson's Crime and Punishment

Tony Robinson's Crime and Punishment is a British documentary for Channel 4. In a four-part series, Tony Robinson goes on a fascinating and sometimes bizarre journey to discover the origins of our laws and what we do to people when they break them. From trials by boiling water, through the decapitation of a king, to the emergence of our modern democracy, it is a journey that starts two thousand years ago and remains unfinished today. It aired on Australian screens in 2009 on ABC1.

Rude Tube

In a fast-paced review of the video viral revolution, Alex Zane presents a countdown of the funniest, rudest and most bizarre video clips to have taken the internet by storm.

Grand Designs Today

Grand Designs Live

Having spent the best part of 10 years talking about buildings, getting excited about new technologies and materials, plus critiquing the emotional journey of more than 50 Grand Designers – finally, it's time to turn the tables on Kevin McCloud's traditional role and watch him build his own house. But, clearly it won't be that straightforward...

The Diets That Time Forgot

In this unique experiment, nine 21st century volunteers subject themselves to the weight loss diets and fitness regimes of previous generations. But have they bitten off less than they can chew?

Stephen Hawking: Master of the Universe

The life and work of British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, presented by Hawking himself.

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory

Willie's Wonky Chocolate Factory is a United Kingdom television documentary series broadcast on Channel 4 in March 2008. Filmed in "fly-on-the-wall" style, it shows the efforts of Willie Harcourt-Cooze to establish a brand of 100% cacao chocolate in the UK. The series centres around "Willie" Harcourt-Cooze, assisted by his wife Tania Harcourt-Cooze née Coleridge, who aims to grow high quality cacao beans on his farm in Venezuela, and then process them in the UK into luxury chocolate products. A follow-up series, Willie's Chocolate Revolution: Raising the Bar, aired on Channel 4 over three consecutive nights, 7–9 April 2009. This followed Willie's attempt to introduce a high-cacao chocolate bar, "Delectable", in the British market.

Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong

Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong was an entertainment show on Channel 4, presented by Alan Carr. During the first series, voice-over commentary in between rounds on the scores is provided by Leslie Phillips. From Series 2, the announcer is Peter Dickson. Season was released onto DVD in 2008. Due to the success of Alan Carr: Chatty Man it has been announced that the show would not return for a third series.

Supersize vs Superskinny

Supersize vs Superskinny is a British television programme on Channel 4 that features information about dieting and extreme eating lifestyles. One of the main show features is a weekly comparison between an overweight person, and an underweight person. The two are brought to a feeding clinic, and live together for five days, swapping diets all supervised by Dr Christian Jessen. The show also featured Anna Richardson in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd series, who examined new methods to lose weight by trying diets she finds on the Internet, some of which have shocking side effects. For example, Anna attempted Laser lipolysis, which went drastically wrong and resulted in severe bruising. Also, she discovered Diabulimia and spoke to Isabelle Caro, a French actress, renowned for her underweight figure and anorexia campaign. During the first series in 2008, one feature involved Gillian McKeith, who tried to find a way to "ban big bums" in the UK. She tested out different exercises to tone the buttocks of different groups of ladies, and made a leader board for the most effective.

Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live

Gordon Ramsay: Cookalong Live is a British cooking show starring Gordon Ramsay. Originally conceived as a one-off episode, Channel 4 later commissioned a full series for late 2008. A Christmas special aired on 25 December 2011 and a second on 25 December 2012.

City of Vice

In the 1750s London’s perilous streets were run by armed gangs, corrupt night watchmen and thief takers. Then two Westminster magistrates, novelist Henry Fielding and his brother, John, obtained a grant from Parliament allowing them to bring some law and order to the crime-ridden boroughs of Central London.

Hugh's Chicken Run

Hugh's Chicken Run was a programme as part of Channel 4's 'Food Fight' series in which celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall launched the campaign to encourage more consumers to demand free range chicken. Hugh was joined on the campaign by fellow celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver, who chose to highlight the issues in the more graphic Jamie's Fowl Dinners. In the series Hugh set about the highlighting the differences in standards by creating his own intensive and free range chicken farms, as well as mentoring a community project in Axminster. Hugh heralded the campaign a success when he managed to get to the point where the majority of the whole fresh chicken consumed in the town of Axminster was free range. Since then the campaign has gone countrywide with over 128,000 viewers having pledged on the campaign website to only buy free range products. The show has been linked with the large rise in free range products, as well as the drop in demand for intensively reared products during January and February 2008. A poll carried out for the RSPCA, 73% of adults claim that they now only buy birds that have "higher welfare" conditions, such as the RSPCA's freedom food scheme, free range or organic

Picture This

Picture This is a cross-platform project from Channel 4, London about photography, in collaboration with independent TV producers Renegade Pictures and Flickr, the photosharing website. Picture This comprises a short reality television series following the progress of six up and coming photographers as they are guided by a group of established photographers and gallery owners, and a website which is designed to help people improve their photography in a friendly, constructive environment. The TV show takes the form of a constructive competition judged by photographer Martin Parr of the Magnum Photos photo agency, Brett Rogers of the Photographers' Gallery and Alex Proud of Proud Galleries. The TV series consists of three hour long episodes, first broadcast in the UK in January 2008. The project was commissioned by Jan Younghusband and Adam Gee. The six competitors were Aron Brown, Lucinda Chua, Elizabeth Gordon, Jay Mawson, Carolyn Mendelsohn and Edward Thompson. Elisabeth Gordon eventually won. The prize for the winner was an exhibition at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead and a book publishing deal.

Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack

Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack was a special series of Celebrity Big Brother, a spin-off series of the British reality television programme Big Brother. It was broadcast on E4 from 3 January - 28 January 2008. A number of closely associated programmes also aired on the same channel. Dermot O'Leary - who had hosted Big Brother's Little Brother since 2001 - was the main host of Celebrity Hijack, and it was his final series of Big Brother. The series was announced on 8 October 2007 by Channel 4 and that it would be replacing Celebrity Big Brother in January 2008, due to the widely publicised racism controversy in Celebrity Big Brother 5. In 2009, Celebrity Big Brother returned to Channel 4 and no further series' of Celebrity Hijack were produced. The premise of the series saw one celebrity a day taking control, with the help of Big Brother; organising their own tasks, making their own rules and talking to the housemates in the Diary Room. They were in charge of a set of housemates, ranging in age from 18–21 years old and all having a special talent. The housemates competed to be the last to leave the house for a £50,000 prize. The series ended on 28 January where John Loughton was voted as the winner.

Britz

Two British-born Muslim siblings are drawn in radically different directions after 9/11.

Russell Brand's Ponderland

Russell Brand's Ponderland is a BAFTA nominated comedy on the British television station Channel 4, presented by comedian and actor Russell Brand. The show consists largely of Brand giving a series of monologues in a stand-up style, interspersed with old television and video footage. Reruns of the show are often shown on Channel 4's sister channel 4music.

Comedy Showcase

Comedy Showcase is a series of one-off comedy specials featuring some of Britain's fledgling comedy talent. Its format is reminiscent of the much earlier Comedy Playhouse. The format was replaced in 2012 by 4Funnies.

Meet The Natives

Dumped

Dumped is a British reality television programme which started on 2 September 2007 and aired nightly until 5 September 2007 on Channel 4. It involved 11 contestants living for three weeks on a rubbish dump next to a landfill site near Croydon, Surrey. The contestants who "survived" the 21 days and used only what they found on the dump were awarded £20,000 to share equally between them. The working title of the programme was Eco-Challenge. One contestant, Darren Lumsden, voluntarily left the programme on Day 3. The series was promoted with a large publicity campaign, which included advertisements on websites and a concert by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. The programme achieved a peak of 2.4 million viewers, although this was marginally less than the number of people watching other channels at the same time. The programme was criticised because it was filmed on an artificial landfill and for its choice of "fame hungry" contestants.

Athens: The Truth About Democracy

Bettany Hughes searches out the real truth about the birth of democracy in ancient Athens 2500 years ago