Channel 4

Channel 4 opens recruitment for scripted Production Training Scheme

(credit: Channel 4)

The scheme is a key part of 4Skills, which aims to find and nurture talent from across the UK, and is designed to attract people into broadcasting and production from diverse backgrounds.

For the first time in its 15-year history, this cohort of the Production Trainee Scheme is entirely focussed on scripted production, with 12 roles available as either Trainee Assistant Script Editors or Scripted Development Assistants. 

Michael Sheen and Anna Lundberg to join Celebrity Gogglebox for Stand Up To Cancer

The episode will air as part of Channel 4 and Cancer Research UK’s Stand Up To Cancer programming.

Actor Michael Sheen and his partner Anna Lundberg are the first two famous faces confirmed to be taking to the sofa as they review the week’s big TV moments.

The programme will also visit the regular Gogglebox households including best friends Jenny and Lee, Blackpool siblings Pete and Sophie, South London partners Marcus and Mica and the Siddiqui family.

Joe Lycett to tackle greenwashing for Channel 4

Having previously fought for the rights of consumers in Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, Lycett will now confront the companies exaggerating their environmental credentials for marketing purposes.

The film will air ahead of the 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference, which starts on 31st October 2021.

Lycett will focus on the energy giant Shell and their marketing as they continue to search for new oil reserves.

Channel 4's Alex Mahon talks privatisation, regional production & growing digital

Alex Mahon (Credit: Richard Kendal)

The decision on whether to privatise Channel 4 should be based on “data and evidence” and not, by implication, on ideology, Alex Mahon told the audience gathered in Cambridge. The broadcaster’s CEO was speaking shortly before Government minister John Whittingdale – a last-minute stand-in for his reshuffled colleague Oliver Dowden – was due to address the RTS Convention.

John Whittingdale outlines Government plans for the UK's creative sector

Culture secretaries tend to come and go with some frequency – but not hours before they are due to address the RTS Cambridge Convention. On the first day of the Convention, Oliver Dowden was shifted sideways in Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle and replaced by former Health and Social Care minister and I’m a Celebrity… contestant Nadine Dorries.

The minister for media and data, John Whittingdale, generously answered a last-minute call to appear by video link to read Dowden’s speech and answer questions from the Convention floor.

TV Diary: Lorraine Heggessey

I still experience that “back to school” feeling in September, even though my daughters have long since finished their education. This year, it’s magnified as life starts return­ing to some kind of normal after months of Covid constraints.

I’ll be going to my first industry event for nearly two years, the RTS Convention in Cambridge. I’ve missed the buzz and energy of being in the same room with people, so I am feeling quite exhilarated.

Public Service Broadcasting: Facing Failure or the Future? | RTS Cambridge Convention 2021

How radical do we have to be to protect public service broadcasting? Ex BBC and New York Times boss Mark Thompson argues that PSB will die in the UK unless huge change happens. He debates his solutions with a distinguished panel. 

Chair

Kirsty Wark, Journalist and Writer

Introduction

Mark Thompson, CEO, Ancestry.com

Speakers

Maria Kyriacou, President, ViacomCBS Networks UK, Australia and Israel

Alex Mahon, CEO, Channel 4

Fraser Nelson, Editor, The Spectator

This Disunited Kingdom | RTS Cambridge Convention 2021

In a year of a Labour Wales, Tory England and SNP Scotland, what does Britishness mean now and in the future? And how can, and should, the British media react? The PSBs are rapidly spreading production round the country. What does this mean for the industry? Is it too late to save UK plc? Top pollster and TV pundit Professor Sir John Curtice puts a series of scenarios to a panel of industry leaders to explore their views of Britishness and the fragmenting media landscape.

Chair

Kirsty Wark, Journalist and Writer

Speakers