Postcard Productions and Gold Wala have both landed short-form commissions for a revamp of ITV's new unscripted talent strand First Cuts.
In addition to October’s Black History Month, the third iteration of Fresh Cuts will mark UK Disability History Month in November with four short-form series from deaf, disabled and neurodivergent film-makers.
The format of the strand is also changing from hour-long single docs to multi-part fact ent series.
Of the eight series, six are made by ITV Studios label MultiStory Media, which previously oversaw the entire strand.
Postcard Productions is producing Ash Holme – What Not To Do, a 2 x 10-minute series in which the presenter and TikTok star takes in different experiences with her dad.
Meanwhile, in Gold Wala’s 2 x 7-minute series Evil Escapes, ‘Lost Voice Guy’ comic Lee Ridley and two other disabled comics take a roadtrip in which they visit Britain’s scariest attractions.
The indies are both participants in ITV’s Amplify scheme.
MultiStory Media’s series for Black History Month are Alter Egos (3 x 10 minutes, Moses Ssebandeke), Black Magic with Trixy (6 x 50 minutes, Sammy Ofori-Attah) and Dogs of Grime (5 x 60-minutes, Destiny Williams).
These will be followed in November by Gold Wala’s series plus Date My Nan (4 x 10 minutes, Stephanie Symington), chat show Unfiltered Women (3 x 10-minutes, Richard Walker) and 4 x 8-minute cooking format Takeaway or Fakeaway (4 x 8 minutes, Molly Dennis).
ITV group director of diversity and inclusion Ade Rawcliffe said the expansion of the strand aimed to address the “notable gap in deaf, disabled and neurodivergent talent at the producer/director level”.
