EXCLUSIVE: British docs presenter Stacey Dooley and comedian Michael Odewale are among the talent attached to a pair of news-themed podcasts for the UK’s Channel 4.
Dooley is teaming up with British journalist and doc maker Ben Zand on Untangled, while the comics behind Channel 4 comedy YouTube channel A Comedy Thing are fronting A News Thing.
Both are designed to promote fact-checked journalism and are aimed at younger audiences. They were commissioned following the January publication of Channel 4 study ‘Gen Z: Trends, Truth and Trust,’ which highlighted the scale of the challenges facing Gen Z in sourcing trusted news. The reported included the revelation that young people have more confidence in social media posts from friends than established journalism.
Of the new podcasts, Untangled will see Dooley (Rape on Trial, Growing Up Gypsy) and Zand (The Toxic World of Perfect Looks: Untold, The Secret World of Incels: Untold) fronting a weekly current affairs show in which they examine headlines dominating social media feeds
The pair will explore the headlines at the leading of our social media feeds to offer clarity on why the story matters matters, whether it is a breaking news story or an under-reported issue. Zandland, the indie production house Zand leads, is producing.
“There’s so much happening in the world,” said Dooley. “It can feel hard to know what really matters or who to trust. With Untangled, we’re hoping to make sense of it all – to have open, honest conversations about the stories everyone’s talking about, without it feeling overwhelming or heavy. It’s about curiosity and compassion.”
Zand added the idea was to “make something that helps people get to grips with the biggest stories without feeling overwhelmed by them, and most importantly, to really focus on the impact of the human beings at the heart of these stories.”
A News Thing is billed as “an entertaining and enlightening weekly analysis of the news,” in which comedian Odewale is joined by a selection of A Comedy Thing regulars, including Finlay Christie and Dan Tiernan, and others from the UK comedy circuit to dissect the week’s biggest and most talked-about stories across the media and online. Strong movie Studios is producing.
As Deadline first reported over the summer, Channel 4 launched A Comedy Thing to publish weekly long-form programming for YouTube and content on TikTok and Instagram. Its launch was one of the biggest bets taken by Channel 4 since youth-skewed digital service Channel 4.0 three years ago.
The podcasts were commissioned by Channel 4 Digital Commissioner Charlie Hyland, outgoing Head of Digital Commissioning Sacha Khari, and Louisa Compton, Head of News and Current Affairs, Specialist Factual and Sport.
Compton said: “Young audiences are drowning in an online world of disinformation, divisive and toxic views – as a result they’re hungry for informed, fact checked and reliable information to help them make sense of the world and these pods will help them do that in very different ways.”
Khari, who is set to join Sony Pictures Television, called the show “two brilliantly distinct but equally vital vodcasts,” and pointed to the fact they’re collaborations between Channel 4’s Current Affairs and Digital commissioning teams. “We’re combining our expertise and trusted values to reach young audiences with content that’s smart, fact-checked, entertaining and genuinely relevant in today’s digital world,” he added.
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