C5 diversity drive leads to factual orders

ViacomCBS-owned UK terrestrial Channel 5 has commissioned two factual series to come out of its diverse-led indie initiative.

Ben Frow

The second season of Sally Lindsay’s Posh Sleepover (6×60’), from UK factual indie Chatterbox, follows the presenter as she becomes a 48-hour house guest in some of the world’s most luxurious homes.

Big Deal Films’ Greatest Toys… strand goes back in time over three one-hour instalments to explore toys through the ages. Beginning with the 1970s and ending in the 1990s, the episodes reminisce about iconic toys and games that were all the rage in each decade.

C5’s initiative, set up in conjunction with The TV Collective in September 2019, supports diverse suppliers’ delivery of mainstream, primetime programmes for the channel.

Ben Frow, director of programmes for ViacomCBS Networks UK, has said that production companies without diverse teams will no longer be commissioned by his networks.

Following today’s news, the initiative has now given rise to 12 commissions, including the inaugural season of Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland and Clockwork Films and Daisybeck’s coproduction The Yorkshire Ripper’s New Victims.

C5 also recently commissioned Nick Knowles’ Home Improvements (working title), a three-part home organisation series from Ten66 that marked the second for the production company following How to Add 20K to Your Home.

Frow said: “This is an important initiative and we’re delighted that it’s continuing to enable talented diverse-led indies to flourish in Channel 5’s primetime. Curating a varied supply chain that incorporates UK indies of all sizes, backgrounds and geographies is absolutely crucial if we’re to keep reflecting the audiences we serve at Channel 5.”