Yesterday moves into today with new series

UKTV’s factual channel Yesterday has launched a raft of new entertainment series and has rebranded as it looks to appeal to younger viewers.

The broadcaster is launching three new series; Fight Club: A History of Violence, Raiders of the Lost Past and British Gangsters: Face of the Underworld.

Adrian Wills, general manager of factual, UKTV, said that it was trying to make the channel appeal to a broader audience, with less focus on war programming. The channel’s new brand identity is described as “entertainment inspired by history”.

Fight Club: A History of Violence is a coproduction with Like A Shot Entertainment. The 4x1hour series borrows heavily from Sherlock Holmes, according to Wills, blends action and historical fact to tell the story and origins of organised fighting, with four eras being covered in the series; Victorian, Georgian, Elizabethan and Tudor.

Raiders of the Lost Past is a 13x50mins coproduction with WMR Productions and looks at the true stories around the quest to discover legendary objects such as the Holy Grail and the real El Dorado.

Meanwhile, British Gangster: Faces of the Underworld is a 6x1hour series produced by Altmar Entertainment and Revelation Films and looks at the lives of British gangsters in the 1940s and 1950s. It is fronted by Bernard O’Mahoney, part of the Essex Boys firm and offers access to many gang members who have previously remained in the shadows. This follows the success of Mafia’s Greatest Hits, which launched on the channel earlier this year.