Channel 4 shines spotlight on recession busters

The UK’s Channel 4 has commissioned a trio of programmes that spotlight companies going against the grain and performing well despite the on going economic recession.

The Who’s Getting Rich season will comprise a pair of 1x60mins docs on pawnbrokers and a prolific ‘jack-of-all-trades’ trader, respectively; and a 2x60mins character-led doc featuring a London scrap yard.

One-off doc The Pawn Shop (WT) comes from Lorraine Heggessey’s Boomerang and is a behind-the-scenes look at company billed as the “undisputed kings at pawning expensive and exclusive objects in cash-strapped Britain”.

The Man Who Will Buy Anything (WT) is a Firecracker Films-produced ob doc looks at ‘real life Del Boy’ Steve Elwis, in reference to David Jason’s character in classic British comedy Only Fools and Horses. Elwis’ company specialises in buying excess stock and selling it on at vast profits.

Also from Firecracker, two-parter Scrappers (WT) follows day-to-day life at a scrap yard and is billed as being “full of incident and humour and larger than life personalities”.

All three will launch on C4 in September.