MEREYSIDE-based independent TV production company Shearwater Media has won its first programme order from Channel 4.
It follows a joint commission for another 12 episodes of its true-crime crime format ‘Faking It’ from the streaming service Discovery+ and digital channel Quest Red.
Shearwater, founded by former BBC and ITV executive Jeff Anderson, has taken on new editorial and technical staff to deliver the programmes.
The first – titled Why Are Your Energy Bills So High? – will be broadcast on as part of Channel 4’s Dispatches series on Monday April 11.
Over the past five series, Faking It – in which a team of experts in body language, linguistics and psychology examine footage of criminals and expose their tell-tale signs of deception – has become one of Discovery’s most popular factual programmes.
The new series of Faking It will kick off with a one-hour Discovery+ special on disgraced R&B superstar R. Kelly in May.
Jeff Anderson said: “We’re delighted to be working with Channel 4 for the first time. Competition for its current affairs slots is fierce, with hundreds of companies putting in proposals, so this is a vote of confidence in both the quality of our ideas and our ability to execute them.”
Future episodes will feature the abduction and murder of Sarah Everard, and the case of Derbyshire dad Mick Philpott who staged an arson attack that killed six of his children.
Anderson, a former editor of This Morning, Tonight and Watchdog, will executive-produce all the programmes, alongside his brother Steve, whose credits include Newsnight, Panorama and Question Time.
