W heads to Australia with Nurses Down Under

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Monday 24 May 2021

UKTV has commissioned brand-new observational documentary series Nurses Down Under (10x60') for its premium entertainment channel W. The series is produced by ITV Studios Australia and is set to air later this year.

Nurses Down Under will take viewers straight to the heart of Sydney's frontline, with exclusive access to the incredible men and women who are working in hospitals across the vibrant Australian city. From A&E incidents to operations in theatre, deliveries in maternity wards and the race against time of the organ transplantation team, the UKTV Original series will offer an intimate opportunity to see the fascinating world of medicine through the nurses' eyes.

The series will follow nurses in three of Sydney's major hospitals as they deal with life and death situations each and every day. Nurses hailing from Australia, alongside their British and Irish ex pat colleagues, will share their extraordinary personal stories as they work round the clock to provide urgent care to those in need. W will have access to men and women at different levels within the nursing profession including nurse probationers just starting out in their career, through to midwives and specialists in the organ donor team.

W's Nurses Down Under has been commissioned for UKTV by Helen Nightingale, senior commissioning editor, and ordered by Adam Collings, channel director for W. Steve North is genre general manager for comedy and entertainment and Hilary Rosen is head of factual and factual entertainment. Executive producers for ITV Studios Australia are head of factual Ben Ulm and Steve Bibb, with the guidance from head of content Beth Hart. ITV Studios are handling distribution internationally.

Helen Nightingale said,

We are delighted to be working with ITV Studios Australia on this fascinating and heart-warming new series. The producers have done an excellent job at gaining access to a fantastic new team of frontline workers who can give us a real sense of what it's like to be a nurse in these extraordinary times."

Adam Collings said,

Now more than ever do we need to celebrate frontline heroes across the globe, so we are thrilled to have this brilliant documentary series coming to W later this year. We may be thousands of miles away from Australia, but there's possibly many more similarities in this environment than we might think. Nurses Down Under will mix emotional stories with the lighter moments that our viewers know and love, making this a perfect new addition to the schedule.

CEO and managing director for ITV Studios Australia, David Mott said,

With extraordinary access, production is now well underway and we are thrilled UKTV have partnered with us to bring these incredible stories to life. Stories with heart, warmth and emotion, told through the daily lives of these brave frontline nurses.

Nurses Down Under is the latest UKTV Original for W and joins other recent commissions including the second series of Women on the Force, Extreme Food Phobics with Dr Ranj Singh, and the International Women's Day special, Inside the Ambulance: Wonder Women.

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For more information, please contact:

Kelly Phelps, Publicist, UKTV

About W

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W is UKTV's premium entertainment channel, offering audiences a dazzling mix of UKTV Original series with some of the UK's most-loved talent in front and behind the camera. Part of the W family, Emma Willis trains as a maternity care assistant in Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, while Emily Atack asks herself some big questions in Emily Atack: Adulting and Stacey Dooley spends some time with extraordinary families in Stacey Dooley: Sleeps Over. For its first foray into scripted original series, W welcomed Lorna Martin's Women on the Verge and celebrity PR drama Flack, starring Academy award winner Anna Paquin.

W will also delve into the world of babies and weddings with My Famous Babysitter and The Wedding Fixer later this year, while channel favourite Inside The Ambulance continues to shine a light on paramedics across the UK. Inside the Operating Theatre takes that relationship further, getting to the heart of the surgeons saving lives inside the hospital. Debut series Ski A&E will look at the heroic actions of emergency ski services. And finally, W's hit acquisitions MasterChef Australia, MasterChef USA and MasterChef USA Juniors round out the offering.

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About UKTV

UKTV has been at the forefront of branded television for over 25 years, entertaining the nation with programmes they love. Its leading brands - Dave, Gold, W, Drama, Alibi, Eden and Yesterday - span comedy, entertainment, natural history, factual and drama, and are delivered to audiences through UKTV Play, Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat and Amazon Fire. The broadcaster is a significant investor in British creativity and is committed to working with new and established writers, directors and programme-makers.

UKTV is part of BBC Studios, the UK's most-awarded production company, a world-class distributor with international branded services, and a commercial subsidiary of the world's leading public service broadcaster, the BBC.

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About ITV Studios

ITV Studios is a creator, producer and distributor of world-leading programmes that people can't get enough of. We connect millions of people every day and shape and reflect the world they live in, we are More Than TV.

ITV Studios is home to some of the best creative minds, crafting over 8,400 hours of original programming across 55 production labels. Our global footprint spans 13 countries including the UK, US, Australia, France, Germany, The Nordics, Italy and the Netherlands and our global distribution business sells our catalogue of 46,000+ hours to broadcasters and platforms around the world.

ITV Studios is part of ITV PLC, which includes the UK's largest commercial broadcaster.