C4 unveils programmes for 2000

Channel 4 has unveiled its first programme line-up of the twenty-first century, which includes three new comedy series, a Sunday edition of Channel 4 News and a new series of controversial drama Queer as Folk.

The channel claims to showcase the “next generation of outstanding British comic talent” with comedian Ali G from the Eleven O’Clock Show getting his own six-part series, and young talent Dom Joly and Peter Kay – who both first appeared in the Comedy Lab – also appearing in their own spin-off series.

Queer as Folk, the drama about a group of young gay men in Manchester returns, as does Sex and the City, ER, NYPD Blue and Frasier.

A major adaptation of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is one of the channel’s more serious highlights, while Channel 4 News will be shown seven nights a week in the new year. Themed nights and specials will also be aired, including a Charlie’s Angels Night in homage to the 1970s US cop show. A caribbean theme night may also run to coincide with the cricket test against the West Indies.

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