Granada to showcase new content at MipTV 2008

Each episode is a window through to an exciting period of history, including the excavation of murdered 18th century slaves, the possible discovery of the True Cross, the looting of Babylonian relics from the Iraq War and the exploration of secret chambers underneath the famous Roman baths.

Another new show is Lost In Austen. In the show a thoroughly modern heroine threatens to ruin one of the world’s greatest literary love stories in this reinvention of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Hollywood actress Alex Kingston stars alongside Hugh Bonneville, Lindsay Duncan (Rome) and new Bond girl Gemma Arterton. Bored bank worker Amanda Price (Jemima Roper) literally becomes lost in her favourite Austen book, after she finds a strange portal in her bathroom and swaps places with its heroine Elizabeth Bennet.

As she gets to know the Bennet family and encounters the famous Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan – The Golden Compass), how can she keep this celebrated romance on track?

Hollywood TV movies also feature in Granada International’s new high definition programming at the market, illustrated by Daughter of the Bride. Luke Perry stars in this family drama centred on a mother and daughter. Rose (Helen Shaver) and Roxanne (Joanna Garcia) are the perfect team as partners in a successful wedding planning company.

But when Rose returns from a wedding dress research trip to Paris, she’s brought back something extra – a new fiancé! Roxanne’s resentment of her mother’s new love increases when he invites her own former fiancé to dinner. It doesn’t take much for Roxanne to try and stop the wedding. But when Rose confides that she only stayed with her unfaithful first husband to keep the family together, Roxanne realises her actions could ruin her mother’s chance for happiness with a man who truly loves her. Can she get the wedding back on track before it’s too late?

The company will also showcase factual series including The Neanderthal Code. This is an evolutionary detective story, shot in High Definition. Neanderthals were humans that dominated Europe for a quarter of a million years and then mysteriously became extinct. Why did they disappear? And what part did we play in their downfall? The programmes travel the length and breadth of Europe, examining key locations where Neanderthals lived, meeting leading experts in the field, and using scientific expertise to reconstruct the Neanderthal’s world.

Through dramatic reconstruction, genetic sequencing and CGI, the programme explores the fascinating theory that Neanderthals interbred with our ancestors. Is it possible that Neanderthal genes still live on today?

For children‘s broadcasters the company has The Pinky and Perky Show. This is a CGI series for 6–11 year olds. Pinky and Perky are a pair of loveable piglets who have just been given their big break in television – their own live TV show full of crazy stunts, wild games, anarchic cartoons and top celebrity guests. Their show is loud, messy and frequently out of control, which makes it a huge hit with the kids at home – and very unpopular with some of the grown ups at the TV station.

They’re determined to get rid of those pesky piglets and have a thousand cunning plots and plans to get them thrown off television for ever. The show must go on, but can Pinky and Perky work together to save the day?

On the format side the company will showcase The Colour of Money. Here contestants play super cash machines to try and make their fortune. In this tense format from 12 Yard Productions, 10 contestants face a bank of 20 different coloured cash machines, each containing an unknown amount of money.

The contestants must decide how much they’d like to win – and the more cash they play for the harder the game. Players choose to withdraw money from 10 machines, shouting ‘Stop!’ before each machine runs out. If they wait and the cash runs dry, then the security system closes it down and they lose everything.

Another format is The Chopping Block and is set in the ultra-competitive world of restaurants. Each week two under-performing restaurants are revamped and pitted against each other to try to impress a renowned food critic or chef and to win a cash prize.

This is a food fight for survival as both businesses are scrutinised, management practices questioned and their customers surveyed. Cameras capture the behind-the-scenes action as it unfolds and the pressure mounts as they try to turn their restaurants around in only 48 hours.