Channel 4 has picked Tiger Aspect to deliver the sole scripted show for its Black to Front initiative.
The indie is producing the 30-minute pilot Big Age from writer Bolu Babalola, who previously worked in BBC Comedy as a writer’s assistant on shows including The Javone Prince Show and Tracey Ullman’s Show before publishing her debut novel Love in Colour.
Big Age is a comedy-drama centred on four young black British friends “growing up, stretching up, stepping up” to the ‘big age’ era of their lives. It stars Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo (Alex Rider, Been So Long) as 25 year-old wannabe writer Ṣadé, with Racheal Ofori (Sliced, Treadstone) as her free-spirited best friend Dela, Michael Workeye (Brothers, Sitting in Limbo) as Ṣadé’s unrequited love Zeke, and CJ Beckford (I Am Danielle, Sitting in Limbo) as the more grounded Tayo.
C4 head of comedy Fiona McDermott promised a show featuring “funny, contemporary and surprising characters that have a deliciously moreish, comic energy” and the broadcaster is eyeing a potential series.
C4 wants the show to have an entirely black production crew. Big Age is produced by Babalola with Amy Annette (who produced BBC2 sketch show Lazy Susan). The director is Nosa Eke and the executive producer for Tiger Aspect is David Simpson.
It joins Optomen and Cr8ive Row reality series Highlife, ITV Studios' reboot of The Big Breakfast with Mo Gilligan and a yet-to-be-revealed topical chat show on the all-black day of programming across C4 on 10 September.
ITV's Black History Month
Meanwhile, ITV is to air a second season of Black History Month programming, including Twofour’s will.i.am: The Blackprint, in which the musician and judge on The Voice UK sets out to learn about the commonalities and differences between the black people he meets in Britain and in his native Los Angeles.
Charlene White will embark on a personal journey to understand the legacy of the British Empire in Doc Hearts’ Empire’s Child, while dancer and presenter Ashley Banjo will meet civil rights campaigners across the UK in Uplands TV doc Britain in Black and White (working title).
Finally, the season, ordered by commissioning editor Satmohan Panesar, will include a second series of TriForce Productions’ panel show Sorry, I Didn’t Know, created by Fraser and Minnie Ayres.
