One Born Every Minute

Channel 4 commissions phobia curing documentary series The Fear Clinic

A woman sits holding a spider, laughing, surrounded by a few other people

Every episode of the six-part series follows three British phobia sufferers as they journey to the Netherlands to face their fears. 10 million people in the UK have a phobia, or extreme or irrational fear. 

Dr Merel Kindt is professor of clinical psychology at the University of Amsterdam, who has spent 20 years developing the Memrec treatment. Kindt’s unorthodox approach boasts a success rate of 83%, and encourages patients to approach their fear head-on, rather than avoid it. Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders, ranidophobia a fear of dogs and globophobia a fear of balloons. 

Profile: Lucinda Hicks, COO at Endemol Shine

Lucinda Hicks

The world of television production can, to quote Digital UK Chief Executive Jonathan Thompson, "sometimes be somewhat sniffy about strategy folk".

With this in mind, he says Lucinda Hicks' success in becoming Endemol Shine UK's Chief Operating Officer is doubly impressive.

He hired Hicks to work with his team at Channel 4 in 2008, when he was its Strategy Director.

Tips in 60 seconds... How to succeed in fixed rig

Fixed rig is an increasingly popular way of story telling in television and, as Channel 4's Commissioning Editor David Brindley points out, an excellent way of breaking into factual and documentary programming. In this video David offers his best tips on getting a job with the huge production teams, and how to excel once your on board.

At Channel 4 David is responsible for developing and refreshing flagship documentary series such as One Born Every Minute, 24 Hours in A&E and First Dates.