The RTS is the leading forum for discussion and debate on all aspects of the television community and winners will be announced at the awards ceremony held on 16 February.
First Love is a factual entertainment series where five celebrities reawaken their musical passions. Running of Sky Arts 1 at the moment, it has seen celebs Sue Perkins, Stephen Mangan, Carl Cox, Alastair Campbell, Shaun Ryder and Sophie Winkleman rediscover the fondness they once had for music before forging their now successful careers.
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"Compelling" - Daily Mail Weekend
"Nicely paced and insightful" – Daily Mail
"Revealing" – The Guardian Guide
"Entertaining" – Observer
"Intelligent" – The Arts Desk
"This series likes to use music as the route to the soul" - Radio Times
"As redemptive celebrity soul-baring goes, First Love with Sue Perkins made Who Do You Think You Are? look like Blankety Blank"
"Watching her thaw in front of us was captivating. Soon it was showtime and, at Cheltenham, a programme that had been handsomely filmed and wisely edited throughout delivered a mesmeric finale. As Perkins walked onto the stage in front of hundreds of classical music fans (rather brilliantly, the director cut the sound altogether as the crowd loomed into view), by heaven you were hoping she’d nail it."
"First Love’s attempt to show us the healing power of music had succeeded, but something else had happened too. As a moved but jubilant Neil Cowley put it: “I think we all fell in love with you.”
Jack Steale, Radio Times
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Each week a different star is paired with a mentor and re-trains in their first musical love which ranges from the bagpipes to saxophone.
The episodes climax with a performance in front of a live audience at events including Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and a party in Ibiza.
Sky Arts’ channel director James Hunt, who ordered the show, said it gave its stars an opportunity to persevere with an instrument they had given up.
“Our cast of celebrities go on a fascinating journey as they reacquaint themselves with their lost musical talent: some, it must be said, more successfully than others! “ he said.
First Love was exec produced by Andy Webb and David Pounds with series producer Jane Gerber.
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High Octane (10 x 60’) is an action sports series shot on location in the US and UK.
The second series is Ultimate Factories, Making the Brand (10 x 60’)and features an insiders look into the awe-inspiring factories of the world’s greatest manufacturers.
This third series, Feeding Time (3 x 60) is a natural history series on animal behaviour.
Electric Sky Productions is the only UK company to have been awarded commissions from the first batch of orders by the new 3D network in the US.
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Winning under the category of Best Single Documentary or Factual Programme, Britain’s Fattest Man is an hour long documentary about 70 stone Paul Mason, who needed life-saving surgery to help him lose weight and enable him to walk again. When it aired on Channel 4 in early January 2011 it was a ratings hit and beat BBC2 and FIVE for the same slot. It was also Channel 4’s most popular show of the day and beat the slot average for the past three months.
The Royal Television Society is the leading forum for discussion and debate on all aspects of the television community.
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The RTS is the leading forum for discussion and debate on all aspects of the television community and winners will be announced at the awards ceremony held on 18 February. The shortlisted programmes fall into the categories of Best Single Documentary or Factual Programme and Best Factual or Factual Entertainment Series for the programmes Britain’s Fattest Man and First Love respectively.
The former is an hour long documentary about a man who requires life-saving surgery to help him lose weight and enable him to walk again. When it aired on Channel 4 in early January 2011 it was the channel’s most popular show of the day and beat the slot average for the past three months.
First Love is a factual entertainment series where five celebrities reawaken their musical passions. It saw celebs Katie Derham, Lenny Henry, Janet Street-Porter, Mark Radcliffe and Meera Syal rediscover the fondness they once had for music before forging their now successful careers.
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“The documentary was Channel 4's most popular show of the day with 11.3% share of the audience” (Guardian 6th January 2011)
“It beat C4’s slot average of 1.84m (8.02%) viewers for the past three months.” (Broadcast 6th January 2011)
“Britain's Fattest Man was, I guess, water-cooler television, just the kind of thing to provoke fascinated "Did you see?" inquiries the following day.” (The Independent, 5th January 2011)
“touching” (The Daily Telegraph, 5th January 2011)
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Broadcast Magazine 2010
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First Love is a 5 x 60-minute series, due to air in August, which sees the famous faces retrain on an instrument they played in their youth, such as Mark Radcliffe relearning the drums and Katie Derham taking on the classical violin.
Each is tutored by a professional mentor and every show climaxes with a live performance to a paying crowd in a range of venues including Jazz Café, Ronnie Scotts’ Jazz Club and the Manchester Apollo.
As well as testing the celebrities’ abilities to play, the series will offer an insight into the artistic world surrounding each instrument.
John Cassy, channel director of Sky Arts, said the aim of the series was to see how the celebrities’ lives could have panned out if they had taken a different path.
“It’s absolutely fascinating to watch some very talented people in their own field turn their hand to something completely different,” said Cassy.
“Not only does it take them out of their comfort zones, but it offers us compelling insight into their own childhood and personalities.”
First Love was commissioned by James Hunt, head of programming at Sky Arts, and has been
exec produced by Andy Webb at Electric Sky.
Broadcast 10 June, 2010 | By Alex Farber
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Electric Sky’s 60-minute profile, which has the working title of Britain’s Fattest Man, will follow 70-stone Paul Mason, who hit the headlines this week when it emerged that he will need surgery to avoid becoming more obese.
Mason, 48, eats 20,000 calories a day – eight times the recommended maximum intake for men – and has had a lifetime addiction to food that has left him confined to his home.
Gastric surgeon Shaw Somers will perform bariatric surgery on Mason at St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester in an attempt to save his life.
C4 factual entertainment editor Alistair Pegg, who ordered the documentary, said: “Through the telling of Paul’s extraordinary story the film also begins to explore, with Somers, what is going wrong with the UK’s eating habits.”
Executive producer Andrew Webb said: “We have been filming with Shaw Somers for several years and have seen first hand the misery obesity brings and how it is possible to transform people’s lives. Paul Mason’s story, extreme as it is, is symbolic of a much deeper problem.”
The programme will be produced and directed by Rebecca Gilhooly.
Broadcast 23 October, 2009 | By Robin Parker
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The series follows the lives of the super morbidly obese patients of leading bariatric surgeon Shaw Somers as they go under the knife. The series will be produced by Rebecca Gilhooly and executive produced by Andrew Webb. It is due to be delivered in spring 2009. The series has also been picked up by Dutch Network SBS.
Broadcast - 30 July, 2008
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Animal Planet has ordered Max's Big Tracks, a 7 x 60-minute series in which tracking expert Ian “Max” Maxwell sets out on a series of quests to find some of the world's most dangerous and elusive creatures.
Meanwhile, Smithsonian Networks has ordered Tomb Detectives, a 6 x 30-minute series investigating suspicious deaths from ancient history using state-of-the art scientific techniques.
Max's Big Tracks was ordered by Animal Planet International commissioning editor Mark Wild and will air later this year. Dan Dixon is the producer on the series.
Tomb Detectives was commissioned by Smithsonian Networks' executive vice-president, programming and production David Royle. The executive producer is Sally Jenkinson. The transmission date has yet to be confirmed.
Broadcast - 4 June, 2008 | By Robert Shepherd
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What the Window Washer Saw offers a fresh perspective on such iconic buildings as the Sears Towers in Chicago and the Two International Finance Centre in Hong Kong and is slated to premiere in the third quarter of 2007 on Voom's Gallery HD channel, while Penny Revolution (9x60-minutes) looks at the world of microfinance and will air in the fourth quarter on Equator HD.
Voom HD has already collaborated with Electric Sky on several series, including Fashion Avenue, Big Boutique in the City and Ultimate Tourist Scams.
Broadcast - 15 January, 2007 | By Dominic Schreiber
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