A new series of documentary films from Maverick Television is about to air on Channel 4 that takes disability into new creative directions. The show, New Shoots, airs at 8.25 on Sunday mornings, repeated at 5.40am Saturdays, presenting 12 debut documentaries all coming from disabled directors. The first run of the show begins on Sunday 8th April.   Across the series…

  UK TV Drama Under Heavy Attack   Award-winning writer Paul Abbott has continued his pressure on broadcasters, with a demand they commission more single films on television.  Ironically, his call comes as both Channel 4 and BBC1 are cutting back on drama.   According to The Stage newspaper, Abbott, the outspoken creator of Channel 4's hit series…

 The E STINGS competition 2007 Yes, we're doing it again. The annual opportunity to weird us out with your crazed imaginations is here once more as E4 and Creative Review proudly present E STINGS 4. "The E STINGS competition has become something of an E4 institution," says E4 head of on-air, Neil Gorringe. "It's fantastic to see what people can get up to with o…

Former US Vice-President Al Gore was in London yesterday for the British launch of the cable channel that he co-founded with entrepreneur Joel Hyatt in 2005, with the aim of "democratising the medium of television." Current TV is the first channel where one-third of the channel's programming is supplied (and voted for) by the audience.      …

  The 79-year-old film director Ken Russell quit the Cebrity Big Brother TV reality TV show after a row with fellow housemate Jade Goody at lunchtime today, show bosses announced. The housemates were told of Russell's departure when a laminate revealing Ken's exit was given to journalist Carole Malone. Russell's fellow celebrities appeared stunned when the news was given…

  The BBC has decided to invest £130,000 in the training of the next generation of series producers. Fourteen new producers will benefit from the training. The BBC has extended its partnership with Glasgow-based TRC (formerly The Research Centre) by jointly creating a new year-long Series Producer Programme for BBC and independent producers.

Gunmen dressed as police stormed the offices of the Shaabiya channel in Zayouna in the east of Baghdad killing eight workers. The channel has so far only broadcast test images and patriotic music, and is said to be aimed at a Sunni Muslim audience. Sunni-Shia violence dominates much of the current unrest in Iraq. The attack comes on the same day a peer-reviewed report by medical journal…

Versions of BBC 1, ITV1 and E4 will be available on the BT Movio Service running on Virgin's new Lobster phone from October 1st.  The channels will be the same as the terrestrial TV versions, but without some films, US TV programmes and sports. People paying more than £25 a month will get the handset and access to the TV service for free - it will otherwise cost £…

  Men Behaving Badly star Martin Clunes is turning away from sitcom with his next TV appearance. He's back on screen next month, playing a man who discovers he has testicular cancer, in a bittersweet drama called Losing It (ITV1, September). It's written by former advertising executive Paul Mendelson, the creator of My Hero and May to December, and based on his own real life…