Channel 4 Kicks Off Paralympic Build Up
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010Channel 4 has fired the starting gun on the build up to the London 2012 Paralympics with a Saturday lunchtime magazine show including a one off documentary. The company Boomerang scored a 10 x 30 minute slot which has the potential of a three year commission. The show will begin in August and will shed light on the GB 2012 team and the range of sports that are involved in the Paralympics.
Rick Edwards, a regular Channel 4 presenter will host the show alongside Ade Adepitan, a seasoned wheelchair basketball player; the show will include guest spots and reports from athletes such as 400m world champion Iwan Thomas and Beijing Breaststroke gold medallist Liz Johnson.
There will be a variety of regular features on the show including pitting celebrities and able bodied athletes against the British squad in a variety of Paralympic sports. The show will aim to promote the games and the issues of the disabilities of the athletes involved. It will be produced to promote the GB team but also encourage those with disabilities to overcome obstacles.
Channel 4 will also host a show presented by Mike Christie focusing on the bodies of the athletes. He will use high tech scanning technology to produce ‘biomechanical portraits’ of five athletes taking part in the games. He will also record their performances against the backdrop of iconic London locations to promote the games.
Channel 4 won the contract for coverage of the games, beating the BBC who had held the contract for the past 20 years. “We wanted to find groundbreaking, intelligent ways of raising the profile of Britain’s Paralympic athletes and the sports themselves, and both these commissions will achieve this brilliantly,” said Julian Bellamy, Head of Channel 4.
Although the network won the rights to the coverage of the games, it was not contracted to produce any further content in relation and some have considered this one of many aspects of British Pride over taking the commercialism that usually surrounds the largest sporting event in history.