Channel 5 has broadcast a number of documentaries following the lives of numerous individuals.
The Hotel Inspector hosted initially by
Ruth Watson and later by
Alex Polizzi is an example of 1 of the channel's documentaries and is one of the channel's most watched programmes.
The Business Inspector was a four-part spin-off show presented by
Hilary Devey in 2010 who later moved to become a dragon on the BBC's ''
Dragon's Den''. In 2011, the channel hosted the latest addition to the 'Inspector' franchise,
The Restaurant Inspector. Animal and nature programmes have been a popular element in Channel 5's schedules with a number of series often repeated. These include ''Michaela's Zoo Babies
, Wild Animal ER
, Animal Rescue Squad
, Vets in Action
and Zoo Days
. Older series such as Nick's Quest
are repeated in the early morning schedules. Monkey World
aired a new series in 2011 but the emphasis on wildlife and animal rescue programmes has been reduced since 2008. In August 2011, the channel broadcast repeats of Meerkat Manor the popular wildlife documentary series 1st broadcast on BBC TV. In 2012, Dominic Monaghan's Wild Things'' aired, a series that followed British actor Dominic Monaghan travel the globe to find – and then handle – some of the biggest and most dangerous creatures on the planet. Educational documentaries have also been prominent in Channel 5's schedule, many originally produced for the
Discovery Channel.
Highland Emergency and
How Do They Do It? are often shown in the 7:30pm slot. The 8pm slot is often filled with male-oriented programmes such as
Ice Road Truckers,
Police Interceptors,
Emergency Bikers,
Revealed (mystery and archaeology),
Monster Moves,
Nature Shock and the
Demolition series. The documentary series,
Sea Patrol UK has aired since 2009 and in 2011, the spin-off show,
Royal Navy: Caribbean Patrol made its début. From 2002, the channel aired several major documentary series on the arts, architecture, philosophy and religion representing a major shift away from the station's previous down-market image. These included series on the lives of the great artists presented by
Tim Marlow who also presented regular previews of major art exhibitions and a series on
Tate Modern.
Divine Designs, presented by Professor Paul Binski examined religious architecture around the UK with two series. These arts programmes are no longer produced on a regular basis but are often repeated. Crime series are another established part of the Channel 5 schedule, some repackaged repeats such as
True CSI and
Forensic Files and the channel has featured several series on serial killers such as
Fred West,
Myra Hindley and
Jack the Ripper. In 2012, crime series
Born to Kill? was screened, which delved into the matter of whether killers such as
Harold Shipman and
Fred West were born to kill. Another crime series titled
Murder Files was also broadcast in 2012, which focused on several notorious criminal cases such as The Schoolboy Assassin, looking back at how police eventually caught their killer.
Countdown to Murder aired in 2013, a unique new crime show that follows a countdown of events that led to the murder of a victim. New programming for 2011 included a series titled
Candy Bar Girls based on the lives of young lesbian women in a bar in London's
Soho district. 2011 also saw
Justin Lee Collins present
Living in Las Vegas and
The Restaurant Inspector, building on the success of
The Hotel Inspector. In 2011, Collins also presented the documentary series,
Justin Lee Collins Turning Japanese. Additionally, the four-part documentary series,
Essex Jungle aired in Spring 2011 focusing on the world of exotic, often dangerous reptiles living in people's homes. In 2012,
Chris Tarrant became the presenter of a documentary series titled
Chris Tarrant: Extreme Railways, with new episodes broadcast on the channel until 2020. Each week, Tarrant undertook a railway journey in a foreign country, meeting the passengers and people who work on railways which go through extreme environments. Tarrant also delved into the history of these extreme railways and found out how they were built. In 2017, Channel 5 showed another train-based series with Tarrant, this time delving into the history of lines and companies in the United Kingdom. The series was called
The Railways That Built Britain with Chris Tarrant, and was followed by a couple of series about trains (
Intercity 125: The Train That Changed Britain' and ''World's Busiest Train Stations'') which were narrated by Tarrant. In 2013, Channel 5 broadcast
Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild, which followed the presenter as he travelled to meet some of the world's few people who have swapped the usual life for something a little different, such as living in a desert as opposed to living in New York City. The programme regularly ranked among the channel's top ten. In November 2015, Fogle's spin-off series
New Lives In The Wild UK introduced Channel 5 viewers to farmers Amanda and Clive Owen, who would go on to have their own Channel 5 show called
Our Yorkshire Farm. Also in 2013, Channel 5 broadcast
Gibraltar: Britain in the Sun, a documentary following the life of the residents in the
British Overseas Territory of
Gibraltar. The six-part series enjoyed steady ratings, and as a result was recommissioned for a second series which aired shortly afterwards in 2014. In 2014, the channel pioneered "Supersize Season", which included sets of documentaries each attached to the same theme of supersize people. Documentaries produced within this season included ''Saving Britain's Biggest Man
, Fat For Cash
, My Gastric Band Ruined My Life
, Too Fat To Fly
, Got Thin - Got Fat Again!
and I Lost Weight and Lost My Husband.'' The use of "seasons" was a common theme during 2014, with Nazi Season, a season dedicated to the Nazis, also produced. In 2017 Channel 5 aired two new documentary series -
Secrets of the National Trust with the anchor host
Alan Titchmarsh and
Tony Robinson: Coast to Coast In December 2021, Channel 5 acquired the fifth series of
Meerkat Manor from
Oxford Scientific Films/
BBC America for its 6.30pm slot (usually featuring
Eggheads). The programme, known internationally as
Meerkat Manor: Rise of the Dynasty was narrated by
Bill Nighy and tracked the meerkat mobs known under the group names Whiskers, Hakuna Mata and Ubuntu. When
Neighbours went on its Christmas break,
Meerkat Manor was put with a half-hour version of
Dogs With Incredible Jobs at 6pm, adding to Channel 5's slate of natural history and animal programmes, which has also seen the
Secret Life of the Forest (showing various wildlife residing in Kielder Forest, Northumberland) broadcast in November 2021. In spring 2022, the channel went back to stripping documentary series across the week in the afternoon and early evening, with the channel trying out a new format with Susan Calman in the 7pm slot called
Big Antique Adventure which also featured the antiques experts Natasha Raskin Sharp, Danny Sebastian and Paul Martin. In addition to this,
Bargain-Loving Brits in the Sun was recommissioned as a 40-part series to run every weekday at 4pm, where previous series have been made up of around eight-to-ten episodes going out on Sunday nights. The series, set around Benidorm and Malaga, features drag queen showbars, animal rescue centres in addition to emigrants making a living on Spain's markets. As well as this 40-part series 8, earlier
Bargain-Loving Brits programmes have been repeated in this lot along with the 2013-2014 series
Gibraltar: Britain in the Sun, which turned up on electronic programme guides as
Bargain Brits in the Sun to fit the title format of the more recent show. The changing of programme titles on Channel 5 is a regular occurrence, with the channel known for changing a programme title at short notice or having an on-screen title that does not correspond with that of the
Radio Times or electronic programme guide. On 10 June 2022, the channel finishes off showing their
Allo Allo! Brits in France series, which follows the lives of various ex-pats in the country, such as Andy and Richard, the owners of a restaurant called Les Roches on the banks of the River Sioule in Auvergne. Whereas the programme previously used the name of the old BBC One sitcom ''
'Allo 'Allo! in its title, the series has been rebranded as The Good Life: Brits in France'', also using the name of an
old BBC One sitcom.
Yorkshire In the 2010s, Channel 5 became known, in certain parts of the media, as the TV channel which is obsessed with Yorkshire, so much so that commissioning editor Daniel Pearl had to tell a television festival audience that he did not want to see "another programme about Yorkshire". Programmes based in Yorkshire include
The Yorkshire Steam Railway: All Aboard, filmed on the
North Yorkshire Moors Railway (NYMR) based at
Pickering railway station,
The Yorkshire Vet, with filming taking place at local farms and in a number of vet surgeries in Yorkshire (including one in
Kirkbymoorside, 7 miles away from the NYMR in Pickering),
Traffic Cops (which featured episodes with North Yorkshire Police),
Yorkshire: A Year In The Wild and
Today at the Great Yorkshire Show Royal Documentaries Saturday night royal documentaries have been a ratings winner for Channel 5, with programmes about past members of the British Royal Family also getting good viewing figures, with a programme about
King George V (whose reign was from 6 May 1910 until 20 January 1936) achieving a rating of 1.4 million viewers when it was first broadcast. Most of these documentaries are made by ITN Productions and feature archive clips with contributions from historians and royal watchers like former BBC royal correspondent
Jennie Bond. These documentaries have become a dependable part of the weekend line-up, and can be dropped into the schedule at the last minute to replace under-performing scheduled programmes, as was the case when the third episode of the new
Challenge Anneka series was replaced by ''Zara & Mike: The People's Royals
and Fergie & Meghan: Inconvenient Royal
on 1 April 2023. As well as the British Royal Family, the slot was used to schedule an ITN documentary called The Grace of Monaco: Hollywood Princess'' about
Grace Kelly, the American actor who married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in April 1956, one of the few titles featuring foreign-born royalty.
''8 O'Clock Heroes'' (2011) In 2011, the 8:00pm daily weekday documentary slot was given the title "8 O'Clock Heroes" with a stripped content of action-packed documentaries focusing on police, emergency services and other "heroic" deeds. Series included in the strand include
Police Interceptors and
Emergency Bikers. Other series in the strand include
Supersize Grime, a fly-on-the-wall documentary series focusing on the world of industrial cleaners from the makers of ITV1's popular
Grimefighters and Sky 1's
Real Filth Fighters. In the following decade sister channel 5Star was repositioned as a more of a
reality TV channel, than the youth TV channel it once was, and so a lot of its comedy programmes were dropped in favour of programming with emergency services. This meant that shows such as
Skin A&E,
999: Critical Condition and
Ambulance: Code Red were more likely to debut on that channel first before being seen on Channel 5. However, after being a programme title used to bulk out the schedule on 5Star or Paramount, series 20 of
Police Interceptors was commissioned to debut on the main channel at 8pm on 10 November 2021, with the repeats continuing in daytime on its sister channels.
Consumer advice programming By 2022, the channel have decided to use their ''8 O'Clock Hour
to schedule a number of consumer advice programmes, the majority of which have been presented by Alexis Conran and scheduled for Thursday nights. Unlike the BBC, who still use the Watchdog
branding for their consumer advice features on The One Show'', Channel 5 have not grouped Conran's shows around one title, with the programmes having names like
Call Centre Chaos: Britain On Hold, ''Britain's Dog Poo Scandal
and Phone Scams: Don't Get Caught Out
. In addition to these programmes, Conran has also presented the series Secrets of Fast Food Giants'' for the channel and has been one of the presenters hired to host the channel's
Jeremy Vine Extra programme while Storm Huntley is on maternity leave. In addition to Conran's investigative consumer advice shows, the channel has reported on holiday travel problems caused by staff shortages in ''Britain's Airport Chaos
, with a similar show, dealing with rail transport as well, called Britain's Travel Chaos: How To Save Your Summer'' scheduled for 12 July 2022 at 8pm.
Clip and retrospective programming In recent years, the channel emphasises on retrospective clip shows that usually feature celebrity talking heads from stars and critics. These strands include
20 Moments That Rocked...,
The Best of Bad TV,
When... Goes Horribly Wrong,
Most Shocking... Moments, ''Britain's Favourite...
, The... Story
and Greatest...
among others. These programmes covers a range of topics from TV bloopers to chocolate bars; where the same limited amount of clips have been used from time to time and they are often renamed in EPGs or TV listings guides. The latest programme in this format was Funniest Royal Cock-Ups'' on 7 November 2021, which had a number of clips where the bloopers featured members of the British Royal family and which had taking head interludes from
Paul Burrell, comedian
Judi Love and
Lady Colin Campbell.
Travel shows By 2021, many of the emergency service shows had been moved away from Channel 5 to debut as 1st run programmes on 5Star (with repeats used as schedule fillers either late night or at 7:00pm against the soaps on BBC One or ITV) as Channel 5 decided to introduce a number of shows celebrating the Great British countryside. As well as its numerous shows about Yorkshire (a fact picked up by comedy shows on other channels such as ''
It's Clarkson On TV and Complaints Welcome'' with Jessica Knappett), and Susan Calman diving her 1999 Daihatsu Romahome 'Helen Mirren' around various locations in her
Grand Day Out series, a programme which builds on the success of her
Secret Scotland show.
Iceland With Alexander Armstrong and the
Bill Nighy narrated ''World's Most Scenic Railway Journeys'' which has featured British and international train routes over its five series. In October 2021, Channel 5 picked up the rights to the 2019 Nat Geo series ''Egypt With The World's Greatest Explorer
(known on National Geographic UK as Fiennes: Return to the Nile
), which they rebranded as The Nile with Sir Ranulph Fiennes
, a three-part series which they decided to show before The Madame Blanc Mysteries
at around 8pm. However, to keep The Madame Blanc Mysteries'' scheduled against the BBC's reboot of
Blankety Blank with Bradley Walsh, they dropped the third episode from Channel 5's line-up on 6 November 2021, deciding to put
Sally Lindsay's mystery drama on earlier and a
Then & Now documentary about ABBA on at 9.10pm. The final episode of
The Nile with Sir Ranulph Fiennes was moved to 5Select on 6 November 2021, replacing an already scheduled episode of
Wild Britain at 8pm. In 2022, Jane McDonald will follow-up her
Cruising with... travel shows with a new 6-part commission called ''Jane McDonald's Yorkshire'', while the cruising shows returned on 20 December 2021 with the first episode in a two-part Christmas special that saw new presenter Susan Calman on board the MS Maud in Norway.
Documentaries from VIS Cruising with Susan Calman is one of a number of documentaries from Channel 5's VIS (Viacom International Studios) sister company. Other shows and series include
Sinatra: King of the Crooners (a feature-length documentary about Frank Sinatra), ''Terry Wogan: Now You're Talking
(about the late BBC Radio 2 breakfast show host), The Wonderful World of Chocolate
(with its spin-off series about cakes retitled as Amazing Cakes and Bakes
on the EPG) and Inside...'' (a documentary series which started off looking at places like Kensington Palace, Strangeways and St Paul's Cathedral, before becoming more focused on stores like Harrods, Aldi, Selfridges and John Lewis with a few episodes devoted to hotels like The Savoy). VIS have also provided the channel with a number of historical documentaries such as
Our Victorian Christmas (a follow-up to
Wartime Christmas from December 2020),
D-Day Remembered: Minute by Minute and
In the Footsteps of... a series with
Gyles Brandreth, which looks at the lives of Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens and the Brontes. In July 2022, with Channel 5 coming to the end of its time broadcasting
Neighbours, VIS put into production two programmes to be broadcast alongside
The Finale as part of a
Neighbours theme night on 29 July 2022. The first programme from VIS for
Neighbours Night is a documentary called
Neighbours Made Me a Star: From Ramsay St to Hollywood, with the second being a pop clips collection called
Neighbours: All the Pop Hits & More, Especially For You which features tracks from Delta Goodrem, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan, alongside "Kiss Kiss" by Holly Valance and the video for Stefan Dennis' "Don't It Make You Feel Good?". (commissioned as
The Story of Britpop), a 4-part music history docu-series which lasted 2 episodes in primetime before being shifted to a late-night slot after the casino, and Nick Knowles' travel programmes in and around the Grand Canyon. As VIS UK was closing, Viacom Head of Factual & Features executive Oliver Wright moved over to the Objective Media Group to set up the production company Coming Up Roses, where he would continue to produce Nick Knowles travel documentaries and royal palace programmes alongside new commissions like
Malta: The Jewel of the Med,
The 1970s Dinner Party and
Kensington & Chelsea: The Royal Borough In addition, travel shows featuring Susan Calman and Jane McDonald were picked up by Entertainment One's Daisybeck Studios, the company already responsible for Channel 5 programmes like
The Yorkshire Vet,
...On the Farm and
The Highland Vet, with the company also adding
Isle of Wight: Jewel of the South to its production slate for Channel 5.
Documentaries from Paramount+ On 28 January 2024, the channel started showing
The Big Posh Holiday Swap a six-part series about the
ThirdHome home exchange service, whose members swap their million pound properties with other clients of ThirdHome. The programme was based on footage from the American television series
Millionaire Holiday Home Swap added to Paramount+ in 2022, with changes added for the British market. After debuting at 10:00pm on 28 January 2024, the second episode was pulled from its 10:30pm timeslot on 4 February 2024 and replaced with a repeat of
Nicola Bulley: The Disappearance That Gripped Britain, an investigative documentary which had been first broadcast on Channel 5 two days earlier, with episode 3 being replaced by the 2008 Jason Statham film
The Bank Job the week after. ==Drama==