Tuesday 2nd May, 2017
W, UKTV's premium pay entertainment channel, has commissioned brand new 6x60' documentary series, The Secrets In My Family, hosted by Alex Jones (The One Show), which will air later this year.
UKTV is working with Ancestry, the leader in family history and consumer genomics, to fund the six-part series produced by Boundless. The Secrets In My Family allows those kept apart by secrets, to dig deeper into their family history using a pioneering DNA test, developed by Ancestry, to uncover the truths behind their family mysteries. The series proves that with little information it is possible to uncover secret family members and solve long-held family mysteries, but the results do not always lead to the ending people hoped for.
The new series was ordered by W general manager, Steve North and UKTV director of commissioning, Richard Watsham. Working with Ancestry, the series was brokered by UKTV's director of commercial partnerships, Sally Quick, Samantha Glynne from Fremantle and Boundless' MD Hannah Wyatt, alongside Sue Moncur from Ancestry.
Sally Quick said,
The combination of assets from a brand like Ancestry, with the storytelling of Boundless and the support from W and UKTV, makes The Secrets In My Family a very exciting project.
Steve North added,
The Secrets In My Family is a fantastic addition to our growing UKTV Originals slate on W. The series reflects the experiences that people all over Britain are facing today and hopefully proves that it is not impossible in this modern age, to find out more about your family's history.
Hannah Wyatt, Managing Director Boundless comment:
We're delighted to have developed this format for UKTV. The series, in partnership with Ancestry, will shine a light on some long-kept secrets and hopefully create new starts for all the families involved.
Sue Moncur added,
Ancestry uses family history and the science of genomics to help people better understand themselves and how we are all connected, so a show like The Secrets In My Family is the perfect platform for us to demonstrate how we solve mysteries and bring people together.
The Secrets In My Family will air later this year on W, home to the critically-acclaimed ratings hit John Bishop: In Conversation With... which returns for a further two series. Along with quality US acquisition's, Code Black and Grimm, W offers audiences a dazzling mix of UKTV Original factual entertainment formats - Dr. Christian Will See You Now, Dancing For The Weekend and The Dressing Room.
For more information, please contact
Jess Molyneux, Publicist
Lara Feinstein, Network Communications Executive
About W
Sky 109/245, Virgin 124/191, BT & TalkTalk 407 / On demand on Sky and Virgin
W is UKTV's premium entertainment channel, offering audiences a dazzling mix of original factual entertainment formats - ON, Get Me To The Church, Honey I Bought the House - alongside the gold standard of shows from the US including Code Black, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders, Grimm and The Strain plus the same day repeat of EastEnders.
About UKTV
UKTV is a commercial broadcaster reaching over 41m viewers every month.
The award-winning independent has eleven imaginative brands - UKTV Play, Dave, W, Gold, Alibi, Yesterday, Drama, Really, Home, Eden and Good Food. These include the two most popular non-PSB channels in the UK and account for nearly 10% of the British commercial TV market. The company's most recent financial results showed record-breaking year-end revenue of £344.8m and EBITDA of £91.3m. It invested £151.2m in programming and related launches last year, and is a significant investor in British creativity.
The network embraces technology to deliver inspired channels to audiences through Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat, Amazon Fire and UKTV Play, and distributes its highly valued original programmes to 200 territories.
Now celebrating over 20 years at the forefront of digital television, UKTV - an independent commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc. (SNI) - is proud to be the first British television broadcaster in The Sunday Times top 100 companies list.
corporate.uktv.co.uk / press.uktv.co.uk / @uktv_press
About Boundless (part of FremantleMedia UK)
Boundless is headed up by Hannah Wyatt who leads the team to deliver some of the biggest factual entertainment series for all the main broadcasters including: the BAFTA award winning series The Apprentice; An Hour to Save Your Life; Escape to the Country; Four Rooms; Great British Railway Journeys; Great American Railroad Journeys; Grand Designs and Normal for Norfolk.
Boundless is part of FremantleMedia UK, the UK production arm of FremantleMedia, the global production and content business of the RTL Group, Europe's largest television and radio company. FremantleMedia UK, comprises of a group of labels, Talkback, Retort, Boundless, Thames, Newman Street and Euston Films, which produce some of the UK's most successful shows.
www.boundlessproductions.tv/
About Ancestry
Ancestry, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, harnesses the information found in family trees, historical records, and DNA to help people gain a new level of understanding about their lives. Ancestry has more than 2.5 million paying subscribers across its core Ancestry websites and four million people in the AncestryDNA network. Since 1996, more than 20 billion records have been added to Ancestry's databases, and users have created more than 80 million family trees on the Ancestry flagship site and its affiliated international websites. Ancestry offers a suite of family history products and services including AncestryDNA, Archives, AncestryProGenealogists, Newspapers.com and Fold3. AncestryDNA is owned and operated by Ancestry.com DNA, LLC, a subsidiary of Ancestry.com, LLC.