STV programmes to go head to head on the BBC and ITV
STV Productions to go ‘head to head’ with shows airing at the same time on BBC One and ITV, STV and UTV.
“We’ve never competed with ourselves for the Saturday night audience before, but it’s a great position to be in and viewers have two brilliant entertainment shows to choose from. The Catchphrase celebrity special is one of our funniest episodes ever, while And They’re Off For Sport Relief is a great mix of a dramatic quiz with even more dramatic races. Great family fun all round!” – STV Productions Head of Entertainment, Gary Chippington
STV Productions is set to take over Saturday night entertainment later tonight (January 6th) as two peak time shows made by the company battle for viewers in the 6pm slot.
On ITV (England and Wales), STV (Scotland) and UTV (Northern Ireland), hit game show Catchphrase kicks off the new year with a hilarious celebrity special hosted by Stephen Mulhern. Comedian Jimmy Carr, Cold Feet star Fay Ripley and Paralympic swimming champion Ellie Simmonds show off their most competitive sides in the show, with all three equally determined to walk away with £50,000 for their chosen charity.
Meanwhile on BBC One, viewers can tune in to STV Productions’ new six-part game show, And They’re Off For Sport Relief. Presented by sports presenter and Strictly Come Dancing 2016 champion Ore Oduba, the show will see a host of famous faces take part in fun – and unpredictable – obstacle courses, including running through mud and hurtling down giant water slides before a final showdown.
Celebrities who have donated their time and best sporting efforts include former athletes Michael Owen, Mike Tindall and Helen Glover, as well as celebrities such as Penny Lancaster, Stacey Solomon, Saira Khan and Russell Kane.
STV Productions is one of the UK’s leading content businesses with ambitious plans for domestic and international growth. The programme maker is part of what began life over sixty years ago as Scottish Television, the ITV production company and broadcaster for Central Scotland. In 1961 Grampian Television joined ITV north of the border, and in the 1990s became part of the STV empire. Today it broadcasts as STV North.
STV Productions however is known outside of Scotland for its networked programming and the company has a record of success across a range of genres, including drama, entertainment and factual, for a wide range of broadcasters. Ratings winner Antiques Road Trip has run for fifteen series on the BBC, along with six series of sister programme Celebrity Antiques Road Trip. A further three series of Antiques Road Trip and a seventh series of Celebrity Antiques Road Trip are now in production.
In entertainment, the company has produced five series of Catchphrase for ITV and two series of Safeword for ITV2, as well as reality format Tour de Celeb for Channel 5 and The Dressing Room for UKTV’s entertainment channel W.
Catchphrase is an STV Production for ITV
Specialist factual successes have included Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered for BBC1, Smithsonian Channel and Discovery Canada and Swallowed By The Sea – Ancient Egypt’s Greatest Lost City for BBC2 and Life After: Chernobyl for Animal Planet US. In documentaries, Dunblane: Our Story for BBC2, commemorating one of the most tragic days in Scotland’s modern history, won a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Single Documentary.
Other STV Productions documentaries include: Ross Kemp Behind Bars – Inside Barlinnie for ITV; two series of Prison: First & Last 24 Hours for Sky1; Scotland and the Battle for Britain presented by Andrew Marr for BBC Two; The Lockerbie Bombing for the Smithsonian Channel and ITV; The 7/7 Bombing: Survivors’ Stories for ITV; Rollermania for BBC Scotland and BBC4; The Queen Mary: Greatest Ocean Liner, a documentary for BBC Scotland, BBC Four and Smithsonian Channel; and Fire in the Night, a feature documentary to mark the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster, which won a BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Single Documentary and the Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
STV Productions has a track record of producing quality returnable drama series including Taggart and Rebus with ambitions to build on this reputation. In the last five years it has produced Fast Freddie and The Poison Tree, both for ITV, and the business recently secured its first BBC drama commission – four part thriller The Victim for BBC One, which is now in pre-production.
In August 2015, STV Productions entered a strategic development partnership with Motion Content Group to create new entertainment, factual and drama projects for the UK and international markets.
