2 March 2021
UKTV has commissioned an International Women's Day special of its hugely popular observational series Inside the Ambulance for W, the broadcaster's flagship entertainment channel.
Inside the Ambulance: Wonder Women (1x90') is made by Brown Bob Productions. The special episode will shine a spotlight on the incredible women who have featured in the series over the past five years, highlighting their courage, compassion, and camaraderie. It will feature newly shot interviews revealing the women behind the green uniforms, as the much-loved paramedics from across the series are seen off duty, and at home, for the very first time. With them, viewers will revisit the most heart-wrenching stories and heart-pounding rescues, and the patients that remain front of their minds long after the ambulance doors close.
Jacqueline Hewer, joint CEO and co-founder of Brown Bob said:
As a company run by women, we have always looked to celebrate the Wonder Women in front and behind the camera. It is an absolute privilege to have been welcomed into the homes of our female ambulance crews for this special programme. They've spoken to us with honesty, heart and of course, humour. This promises to be a real treat for the loyal audience of Inside the Ambulance.
W's Inside the Ambulance: Wonder Women has been commissioned for UKTV by Hilary Rosen, deputy director of commissioning, and ordered by Adam Collings, channel director for W. Steve North is genre general manager for comedy and entertainment and Richard Watsham is director of commissioning. Susan Maxwell is executive producer for Brown Bob Productions.
Hilary Rosen said:
This one-off special is a fitting tribute to the fantastic female paramedics who we've got to know over the past 12 series. Seeing them in their homes, surrounded by lego and their pets, is a treat. They talk from the heart about what it means to do the job that they love and it made me weep.
Inside the Ambulance: Wonder Women will air on March 8th, 2021 - International Women's Day - alongside a plethora of shows on the channel that celebrate women, including an exclusive preview episode from the new series of W's gripping documentary Women on the Force, and the finale of Emma Willis: Delivering Babies in 2020. Also on offer is UKTV Original Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over (S1 - Open Marriage), and One Born Every Minute.
Adam Collings said:
On W, we celebrate and showcase amazing women every day, all year round. From inspiring new mums in Emma Willis: Delivering Babies, to heroic front-line workers saving lives Inside the Ambulance, and brave Women on the Force. International Women's Day provides us with a special opportunity to show our appreciation to everyone who works on those shows so I'm looking forward to joining in the celebrations and seeing all our Wonder Women in action."
Celebrating International Women's Day on W
Over on Dave and Gold, the channels' peak schedules on the same day will be exclusively made up of programmes either written by or starring female talent. Those include Gold's new retrospective, The Vicar of Dibley: Inside Out with Dawn French, episode five of Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable on Dave, starring Mel Giedroyc, Lou Sanders and Sindhu Vee, and All Girls Live at the Apollo featuring Sara Pascoe and Lucy Porter.
This news follows the announcement of UKTV's new female writers initiative in partnership with Comedy 50:50. The aim of that project is to recruit significantly more female storytellers for its scripted comedy pipeline. UKTV is funding the development of 10 treatments for 30-minute comedies for either Dave or Gold. The commissioning team, led by Richard Watsham, is looking to commission at least three scripts with the aim of greenlighting one or more for production.
For more information, please contact:
Ali Laurie, Publicist, UKTV
About W
Sky 109/809, Virgin 125/191, BT 311/383, TalkTalk 311/ On demand on Sky, Virgin, BT and TalkTalk
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, 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.
About Brown Bob
Brown Bob Productions specialises in high volume, high rating factual series. The company has a particular expertise in designing bespoke rigs in order to film people and places in a new and different way. Brown Bob has produced a number of different series for UKTV under the Inside the... brand, including Inside the Operating Theatre and Inside the Vets. It's also behind the ratings-winner, Fraud Squad: The Hunt for BBC One.
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.