Channel 4 announces new immersive programme, My Week As A Muslim

At a time when relationships between different cultures and faiths are under particular strain in the UK, Channel 4 has commissioned The Garden Productions to make My Week As A Muslim (wt) a one-off immersive programme that will explore what it’s like to be Muslim in Britain today, and challenge some of the assumptions and prejudices that different communities in the UK have about each other.

Using radical methods the powerful and frank film will offer insight into the everyday lives of people from two separate cultures and explore the similarities and the differences between the communities in a bold and insightful way.

Using prosthetics and make-up one woman from a predominantly white community in the North West will be fully immersed into a Pakistani Muslim family living just a few miles away. Filmed during a particularly tense time in Manchester when the city was dealing with the impact of the recent terrorist attack, the process allowed one woman, who admits to knowing little about her Muslim neighbours, the opportunity to witness and experience first-hand the impact of events on Mancunians including those in the Muslim community.

Kelly Webb-Lamb said “At a time when the country can feel divided, it is so important for different communities to come together and understand each other better. We need to have the courage to tackle taboos head on and have frank and honest conversations for the sake of better relationships between our communities.”

The show was commissioned by former Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment Danny Carvalho and is now being overseen by Head of Factual Entertainment Kelly Webb-Lamb with Commissioning Editor for Factual Entertainment Gilly Greenslade. Fozia Khan and Jenny Midl are executive producing for The Garden Productions with series producer Sam Ornbo.

Fozia Khan added: “As we were making this film at a time of the terrible terrorist attack in Manchester our contributor was able to experience first-hand the reactions of non-Muslim people to those of Islamic faith, as well as understand how deeply the actions of one person can reverberate through the entire Muslim community affecting their everyday lives. To witness our contributors coming together and truly understand where the other was coming from was a unique opportunity and makes for a moving piece of television.”

The Garden Productions are well known for the critically-acclaimed documentary series: ’24 Hours in A&E’, ’24 Hours in Police Custody’, and the BAFTA award-winning series ‘Bedlam’.

Links

http://www.channel4.com

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