While lockdown has put a stop to programme-making around the world, Channel 4 has come up with a novel solution – attaching cameras to dogs.
The broadcaster has announced five new shows, including a series on sex during the crisis and a celebrity property show.
And the latter gets around social distancing restrictions by using dogs to “sniff out secrets of the stars”.
Snoop Dogs will see cameras go inside the homes of well-known faces.
But the film crew are the pets of the famous residents.
Each episode “peeks inside the homes of two much-loved celebrities during lockdown, with Go-Pro cameras attached to their pooches who guide us around their lavish homes”, the broadcaster said.
“The four-legged friends will turn pup-arazzi on their owners and show us upstairs and downstairs, under the beds and behind the sofas of our favourite celebs – and anywhere else the canines fancy sniffing out.”
The identities of the celebrities are kept under wraps until the end of each episode.
Channel 4 asked production companies to put forward ideas during the pandemic and Stellify, the maker of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, came up with the idea.
Deputy head of features and formats at Channel 4 Sean Doyle said: “I didn’t want lockdown to stifle creative conversations and Snoop Dogs is a perfect example of a reactive and outside-of-the-box commission.
“We’ve come up a wonderfully ridiculous spin on filming in lockdown that only Channel 4 could get away with.
“We hope families enjoy playing along whilst getting a healthy dose of doggy mischief and celebrities’ lush properties and home interiors.”
In another new programme, presenter Anna Richardson “lifts the lid on sex and relationships in lockdown Britain” offering “advice, insight and tips”.
Sex Tips In Isolation will look at the sex habits of Britons during the crisis and behind closed doors.
Richardson will “speak to members of the public, celebrities and experts all willing to overshare their sexual adventures in isolation”.
Executive producer Camilla Lewis said: “If there’s one good thing that has come out of lockdown, it seems to be that more Brits than ever before are having sex, enjoying sex, and exploring things they never would have dreamed of before.
“This show reflects the resilience of the British people, and how love during lockdown cannot only survive but thrive.”
Other programmes include Coronavirus Heroes: Keeping Britain Going, which will follow a small group of frontline workers, including teachers, delivery drivers, supermarket staff, food industry workers, cleaners, carers, refuse collectors, and bus drivers.
“They will film themselves, their family and friends to provide a moving and realistic portrait of their days,” Channel 4 said.
While broadcasters face an advertising slump as a result of the crisis, comedian Tom Allen will explore 65 years of the “nation’s best-loved and most outrageous TV adverts” in a new series.
Channel 4 also announced Ramadan In Lockdown, looking at British Muslim life during this time.
The shorts will be mostly filmed by contributors themselves to “deliver an insightful window into one of the most important months in the Muslim calendar”.
