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³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Worldwide Channels has secured a number of entertainment and factual entertainment titles for its channels in Poland, Africa and the Nordic region, featuring some of the best known faces on international television.

Bun Scrase-Dickins, VP Acquisitions, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Worldwide Channels said, "We work hard to ensure a constant stream of high quality programmes for our viewers, and it's particularly exciting to see these titles making their international debuts on our channels."

Acquired for Africa is acclaimed new comedy series Episodes starring Matt Le Blanc (Friends), Tamsin Greig (Friday Night Dinner, Tamara Drewe) and Stephen Mangan (Free Agents, Green Wing). The seven part series, distributed by Hat Trick International, tells the story of a happily married English couple, Sean and Beverly Lincoln, who move to Los Angeles to remake their hit show for an American audience – with disastrous results.

Episodes airs on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Entertainment from August 2011.

For Africa and Poland, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Worldwide Channels has bought the series Dating in the Dark from Talpa Media. In July 2011, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Entertainment will premiere the UK version of this hit international format, hosted by Girls Aloud singer Sarah Harding. The series sees three couples enter a light-proof house where they have to get to know each other and form bonds without knowing what the other looks like.

For the Nordic region, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Worldwide Channels has also picked up ten titles from DRG starring master psychological illusionist Derren Brown. The slate includes the one-off specials Enigma, The Heist, ³§Ã©²¹²Ô³¦±ð, Messiah, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Russian Roulette Re-Loaded, The System and the Mind Control series. ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Entertainment will also be showing all three series of the Trick of the Mind and series one and two of Trick or Treat.

All the titles are set air from August 2011.

The deals were brokered by Melanie Owen and Richard Acton, Acquisitions Managers, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Worldwide Channels.

NOTES TO EDITORS

PROGRAMME SYNOPSES

Dating in the Dark (8 x 50')
Inside a secluded house, a most unusual dating experiment is going to take place... Behind light-sealed doors, three single men and three single women must meet, date and get to know each other through and through – all in pitch-darkness!

Derren Brown: Enigma (1 x 90’)
Another jaw-dropping, show-stopping theatrical event which leaves the live audience and viewers in awe of the illusionist’s incredible abilities to control minds, manipulate thoughts and tickle the funny bone.

Derren Brown: Messiah (1 x50’)
Derren challenges certain belief systems and our tendency not to question them. How easy is it to persuade people to believe unquestionably in an idea just because it comes from someone in a position of authority?

Derren Brown: Mind Control Specials (3 x 50’)
Using his unique abilities to anticipate and manipulate people's everyday reactions, the illusionist pushes the right buttons to read the human mind.

Derren Brown: Russian Roulette Re-Loaded (1 x 50’)
Psychological illusionist Derren Brown is back with his most dangerous experiment yet - Russian Roulette. Filmed in a secret location, a member of the public, chosen from a nationwide search, will load a real handgun with one bullet and then hand it to Derren.

Derren Brown: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1 x 76’)
The show toured around the UK to critical and public acclaim and won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment Show 2006. It was performed for a final time in front of the cameras at The Old Vic Theatre in London at the end of the tour.

Derren Brown: Seance (1 x 50’)
Using a range of traditional methods, from automatic writing to the Spirit Cabinet and the Ouija board, Derren guides his subjects through the various stages of a séance, using his skills and showmanship to challenge some of the most prevalent myths of spiritualism. Viewers at home can join in on the night, as Derren invites them to help prove his theories correct.

Derren Brown: The Heist (1 x 50’)
In this series an infamous team of retired criminal masterminds is set three tasks - to 'steal' a painting, a racehorse and a sports car. The programme is made with the co-operation of the respective owners but with their security teams unaware of the gang's intentions. The Heist provides a fascinating insight into the real world of crime and the mindset of the perpetrators - something rarely revealed to the public.

Derren Brown: The System (1 x 48’)
The Master of Mind Control has developed a guaranteed system for winning at the horses. Not only that, he explains exactly how he does it to everyone watching so they can use it for themselves. Derren takes a random member of the public and begins sending her anonymous predictions twenty four hours before a series of races. Over the course of a few weeks, the single mum from London sees the System working again and again, and so begins to place larger and larger bets winning every time, finally scraping together every last penny she has to risk it all on one final race. Can there really be a perfect system for winning at the races?

Derren Brown: Trick Of The Mind (6 x 25’; 6 x 25’; 5 x 25’)
Derren Brown demonstrates his unique powers of psychological illusion, misdirection and showmanship.

Derren Brown: Trick Or Treat (6 x 25’; 6 x 25’)
Derren Brown is at his most devilish, having persuaded members of the public to sign a Faustian pact with him and participate in a macabre game of Trick or Treat.

Episodes (7 x 30)
Episodes is the story of a happily married English couple, Sean and Beverly Lincoln (Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig) who also happen to be successful producers of a hit British TV show called Lyman's Boys. At an awards ceremony in London they are wooed by a hugely powerful and charismatic US network executive who persuades them to move out to LA and remake their hit show for an American audience - with disastrous results.

Harriet Otoo