Channel 5 has unveiled a diverse range of factual programmes for its Autumn schedule, with topics ranging from aviation heroism to facial reconstruction surgeons.

Productions include Making Faces (4 x 60 mins), which looks at the work of surgeons and prosthetics experts at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. Over the course of five months, producer IWC will follow the work of the unit as its experts rebuild faces destroyed by disease and injury. Still on a medical theme is Rare Day”s Brain Surgery (4 x 60 mins). The series will look at the ground-breaking research being done by neuroscientists at the Walton Centre in Liverpool. Exec Producers for Rare Day are Peter Dale and Ros Franey.

Heroes of the Skies (6 x 60 mins), produced by Cineflix, will use vintage planes such as Spitfires, Lancaster bombers and Phantom fighters, aerial stunt teams, and state-of-the-art camera technology, to dramatise the exploits of some of history”s greatest military air heroes. Meanwhile Testimony Films is producing 9/11 Escape from the Impact Zone, which tells the story of the handful of people in the South Tower on the actual floors hit by the plane, who made it out alive.

Commenting on the slate, Andrew O”Connell, Channel 5 Head of Factual, News and Current Affairs said:
“From the amazing stories stemming from access to cutting edge medical centres through to tales of airborne heroism these programmes build on Channel 5”s already impressive commitment to factual. We”re immensely proud of bringing them to our audiences”

In a separate announcement, Channel 5 says it has also commissioned five new films in its Revealed documentary strand. These include The Man Who Saved the World: Revealed (w/t), a look back at The Cuban Missile Crisis [Bedlam Productions – a co-production with PBS and Channel One Russia]; and Nazi Temple of Doom: Revealed. A story which looks at the Nazi fascination with occultism and the grail, this is made by Furneaux & Edgar Productions, in co-production with National Geographic Channels International.