Channel 4 cooks up some tasty treats for viewers in 2018

Ahead of the official start of the Edinburgh TV Festival today, outgoing Channel 4 boss Jay Hunt fed Square Eyes at a fancy hotel – and threw us a few tasty bones about what we can expect from the channel next year. Here is a trio of new stuff coming your way in 2018:

Jerusalem is a new six-part period thriller set in the aftermath of the Second World War when Britain was struggling to define itself in the new world order.

The plot revolves around Feef Symonds, a bold and ambitious 20-something woman who joins the Civil Service in 1945, just as Clement Attlee’s Labour party sweeps to victory after defeating Winston Churchill.

Writer and creator Bash Doran says: “It is my perspective on a defining moment in British history when the nation was divided and there was a fight for Britain’s soul.”

Stephen Mangan will star as Dr Richard Pitt, a therapist with a chequered professional career, in six-part comedy series Hang Ups.

After the collapse of his previous group therapy practice, Dr Pitt is no longer able to conduct the traditional 50-minute sessions most therapists have with their patients. Instead, he has developed a new form of therapy – weekly quick-fire sessions with his patients which take place online, through a webcam. Stephen, who writes and stars, says: “People are complex and complicated and they lead messy, knotty lives. We’ve tried to put some of that all-too-familiar turmoil on screen and the result, I think, is chaotic, glorious and disturbing.”

In a new four-part series, Grayson Perry will explore the landmark events in all of our lives – birth, coming of age, marriage and death. For Rites Of Passage he’ll be travelling the world for inspiration, spending time with communities in the Amazon, Indonesia and Japan to see how they treat these milestones.