In addition to announcing a new dramedy series from Shameless creator Paul Abbott, Channel 4 has also announced that they have commissioned two new factual series: I Want A Council House , which explores the reality of those living on Britain’s social housing list; and My Last Summer, which will follow five people whom are terminally ill.
Produced by Studio Lambert (who just sold a new documentary series to BBC Three), I Want A Council House was filmed over six months in Tower Hamlets and Manchester, with the crew having access to the councils’ homeless persons’ unit and lettings teams. The three part series follows the day to day lives of the workers tasked with implementing the system and the stories of the people they deal with. Through these personal stories the series will address the housing headlines and challenge our preconceptions of the way housing is allocated and our view of the deserving and undeserving poor. The series will also follow the journeys of the families and individuals already on the housing list bidding for homes, the system by which the council decide who should get a property and the decision making process of those who are eventually offered a home. I Want A Council house is directed by Toby Paton and produced by Barnaby Peel and Jessica Spencer. The executive producer is Ros Ponder.
My Last Summer is a four episode series which will bring together a group of five strangers who are terminally ill and have been told they are dying. The group will meet regularly at a residential manor house in the Cotswolds to help support one another through the final stages of their life while they contemplate the reality of their own death. Putting the group all together in the same house will provide them with the opportunity to confront their hopes, fears and regrets and share what thoughts they have on their funerals, legacy and afterlife. They will also get the chance to meet one another’s close friends and families to discuss and understand how death affects those that are left behind. Love Productions is producing the series, with Kieran Smith, Richard McKerrow and Debbie Christie serving as executive producers.
