Channel 5 tracks Jacko’s Last Hours, feels the love

UK broadcaster Channel 5 has commissioned a series looking into the last hours of late stars such as Michael Jackson and ordered a season of programmes showcasing love in all its guises.

Autopsy: The Last Hours of… will look into the final moments of three celebrities – singer Jackson, Whitney Houston and model Anna-Nicole Smith – using medical documents to debunk rumours around their unexpected deaths.

The 3x60mins series comes from ITV Studios-owned UK producer Potato and will broadcast on the network in the first quarter of next year. Ed Taylor and Michael Kelpie are executive producing.

The love-themed series comprises five programmes. Holiday Love Rats and Baby Faced Brides are 1x60mins docs about women duped into losing their savings by criminals pretending to be in love with them and teenage brides, respectively.

Holiday Love Rats comes from Nine Lives, while Baby Faced Brides is from Crackit Productions. Ad agency GroupM Entertainment is coproducing both.

Another 1x60mins series is factual entertainment special Celebrity Wedding Planner, from Renegade Pictures and GroupM. It will see actress Helen Flanaghan and ex-Made in Chelsea performer Hugo Taylor turning their hand to wedding planning.

Henry and Anne: The Lovers Who Changed History is a 2x60mins miniseries looking at the turbulent love affair between King Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn. All3Media-owned Lion TV is producing.

Finally, She’s 78, He’s 39: Age Gap Love is a doc from Nine Lives that showcases love affairs between people are startling different age groups, including 74 year-old man and a 33 year-woman who recently had a child together.

Ben Frow, director of programmes at Channel 5, said: “We all need a little love in our lives and we thought it would be fun for Channel 5 to look at affairs of the heart in all sorts of ways. From the drama of one of the most famous couples in history through to the women who gambled and lost it all on a holiday romance, this is love’s ups and downs done the Channel 5 way.”