Household names including Dame Darcey Bussell, David Jason and Jon Snow are to front an array of new commissions for More4 as the channel focusses its attentions on “uplifting and joyous entertainment formats, contemporary history pieces and access-led programming”.

The channel celebrated recent success with The Great Pottery Throw Down, hosted by Melanie Sykes, attracting More4’s biggest overnight audience in six years to its launch. The show’s debut averaged 688k viewers, 780k peak and a 3.6 per cent share of the viewing audience, almost four times the channel’s slot average whilst drawing a younger and more upmarket audience to the 9pm slot – six and five times the slot average for 16-34 year old viewers and ABC1s respectively.

Director of Programmes, Ian Katz has asked Sean Doyle, Deputy Head of Features and Formats at Channel 4, to lead commissioning for More4, working closely with channel manager Chris Collie. Doyle will aim to ensure the brand-new commissioned content has a distinctive identity and stands out from the rest of the pack.

Doyle said: “One of my priorities when joining Channel 4 was to pay particular attention to More4, ensuring it had a clear identity going forward. I’m delighted to announce such a wide-ranging slate for the channel that showcases both a brilliant calibre of talent and cements our reputation in terms of unprecedented access documentaries. From Jon Snow, David Jason and Darcey Bussell there really is something for everyone and we are delighted to have attracted such star quality to More4. These new commissions reflect the level of More4’s ambition and the range and scale of programming across the new schedule is testament to the indies continuing to bring us surprising and innovative ways of telling different stories.”

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