Duncan: C4 to continue 'creative renewal'

Channel 4 chief executive Andy Duncan has said the broadcaster's new autumn lineup reflects a further push for "creative renewal".

The phrase, first uttered at last year's Edinburgh Festival in the wake of a half-year of bad publicity after the Shilpa Shetty race row on Celebrity Big Brother, has come to embody the goals outlined in the channel's "Next on 4" initiative connected with its pitch for continued relevance in the UK's fracturing public service broadcasting market.

The channel pledged to show "the equivalent of one new documentary in peak-time every weekday", and plans to meet that commitment with The State of the Nation, a series of documentaries including a modern take on Paul Watson's classic The Family.

"This is an incredibly ambitious and large-scale undertaking that puts documentaries at the heart of the channel over the next year," said Channel 4 head of programmes Julian Bellamy. "It demonstrates our commitment to commissioning innovative but accessible programmes that address contemporary issues and stimulate public debate."

Other documentaries to be included in the series are Life and Death at 18, examining how the NHS copes with children with short life expectancies; The Force, which follows the challenges faced by police in modern Britain; The Hunt for Britain's Sex Traffickers; and Benefit Business, which looks at the Government's attempts to overhaul the UK's benefit system. Appealing to the teen audience will be Embarassing Teenage Bodies and an Anna Ryder-Richardson hosted cross-platform commission, The Sex Education Show.

This year's campaigning season, following on from Big Food Fight and Disarming Britain, will examine issues surrounding adoption. Adopt Me, in which five sets of prospective adoptive parents will be given hands-on parenting experience, will appear alongside Samantha Morton's The Unloved, looking at the plight of children who grow up in care.

Alongside the channel's factual output will be a slate of new drama led by The Devil's Whore, which offers a "fresh perspective" on the English Civil War with stars including John Simm and Andrea Riseborough.

Headlining Channel 4's comedic programmes is Peter Kay's Britain’s Got the Pop Factor and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice, billed as a "celebration of reality TV talent shows", plus a retransmission run of E4's The Inbetweeners and a new series of Alan Carr's Celebrity Ding Dong. The IT Crowd, which was recently acquired by US cable channel IFC, also returns for a new series.