Comedian, actress and author Rosie Jones, who has cerebral palsy, is to star in three new commissions for Channel 4 – Trip Hazard (series 2), Dine Hard and a new documentary that explores society’s attitudes towards disabled people.
Rosie Jones has been part of the Channel 4 family for almost a decade, starting as a researcher and writer as part of Channel 4’s disability training programme, in which she worked on a variety of shows including The Last Leg and 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
Having seen comedians get laughs for her lines, she decided she wanted to be the one on stage delivering them. She also wanted to better represent disability on television and stage.
Since then, Rosie has made regular guest appearances on The Last Leg. She was also the show’s Paralympic correspondent at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Other Channel 4 shows she has featured on screen include 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Compaints Welcome, Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, plus many more.
In addition, Rosie starred in two series of a short-form travelogue series called Mission: Accessible, which explores accessible activities for disabled holidaymakers.
Now, Rosie has bagged herself a trio of commissions from Channel 4, which will be aired later this year.
Rosie Jones said: “It gives me immense pleasure to be heading up not one, not two, but THREE Channel 4 shows! How lucky am I?! In my opinion, Channel 4 has always been the pioneer channel when it comes to championing and celebrating diversity and showcasing different, important stories. All three of these shows do just that. Oh, do I have a brilliantly busy year ahead!”
Phil Harris, Head of Entertainment and Events at Channel 4, said: “Rosie Jones is a brilliant talent and we absolutely love working with her. We’re over the moon viewers will get to see more of the Rosie they love in Trip Hazard, as well as a different side to her in the documentary, which looks at a massively important issue that is incredibly close to Rosie’s heart.”
Trip Hazard: Series two
Trip Hazard is back for a super-sized second series. The show sees Rosie joined by more celebrity friends to explore the unlikeliest of destinations around the UK, experiencing the unusual, quirky and bonkers activities on offer in each location.
With longer episodes and more chances to explore, Rosie and her famous companions have more time to create mischief, get stuck in with the locals and go head-to-head in a contest for a big finale to each episode.
In the first series, Rosie explored the Lake District, Whitby, Norwich and Anglesea, with famous friends Scarlett Moffatt, Joe Wilkinson, Jamali Maddix and Jenny Eclair.
The show had rave reviews with Metro saying, “Rosie Jones puts the fun back in road trips in this determinedly silly romp around the UK”.
Dine Hard
Rosie is also hosting Dine Hard, an all-new comedy, chat and cooking five-part series. Cooking may not come naturally to Rosie but manipulating her famous friends certainly does and she might ask a favour or three before she’s finished the starter. Expect great chat, mediocre food and (hopefully) very few culinary-related trips to A&E.
Digital Commissioning Executive Thomas Pullen said: “The representation of disability in cooking and chat show formats haven’t come as far as in some other genres.
So, with Rosie Jones: Dine Hard, we wanted to take a big stride forward and throw Rosie in at the deep end, asking her to do both those things at once – cooking and chat – and in true Rosie style, she has risen to that challenge.
But this is about way more than just on-screen representation. We wanted to make this a really inclusive production with over a third of our on and off-screen team made up of disabled talent.”
Documentary exploring society’s attitudes towards disabled people
In a one-off, untitled documentary, Rosie explores society’s attitudes towards disabled people.
Rosie regularly receives shocking abuse on social media and she will use this as a starting point to investigate how widespread the problem is, looking particularly at the specifics of the language used towards disabled people to build a picture of the nature of society’s attitudes towards them.
Rosie will meet other people targeted for abuse about being disabled as well as those campaigning for change. Approaching the documentary with her inimitable humour and love for life, Rosie will also rope in her friends from the world of comedy to help raise awareness of the problem.
Find out more about Rosie Jones by reading our featured interview with the comedy genius.
By Emma Purcell
More on Disability Horizons…
- Lee Ridley on life as a disabled comedian and living through lockdown
- The Last Leg: how the show still promotes positive disability representation
- Sailing with a disability: all first timers welcome to experience voyages on board a fully-accessible ship
- 8 kitchen aids for disabled people to prepare and enjoy meals with ease
