''One Born Every Minute'' is a British observational documentary series which shows activities taking place in the labour ward. The programme ran for eleven series on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

, premiering on 9 February 2010 and airing its final episode on 9 May 2018. Channel 4 announced in August 2019 that ''One Born Every Minute'' had been cancelled.

Production

''One Born Every Minute'' has to date achieved the highest ratings of any "fixed rig" multicamera documentary series, with its most popular episodes attracting audiences in excess of five million. The "rig" technique for making factual television was pioneered by Dragonfly founders Nick Curwin and Magnus Temple, in partnership with Channel 4 commissioning editor Simon Dickson, in 2008.

Awards

The first series won a 2010

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

for best factual series; the second series was nominated for a 2011 BAFTA for best factual series.

Airlock An airlock is a room or compartment which permits passage between environments of differing atmospheric pressure or composition, while minimizing the changing of pressure or composition between the differing environments. An airlock consist ...

, who designed the interactive and multimedia material to accompany the series, were nominated for a 2010 BAFTA "New Media Award".

International versions

In February 2011 an American version of ''One Born Every Minute'' premiered in the USA on

Lifetime Television Lifetime is an American basic cable channel that is part of Lifetime Entertainment Services, a subsidiary of A&E Networks, which is jointly owned by Hearst Communications and The Walt Disney Company. It features programming that is geared toward ...

and in August 2011 a French adaptation named ''Baby Boom'' premiered on France's

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

. There have been two seasons of the American show and five of the French.

Baby Boom A baby boom is a period marked by a significant increase of births. This demography, demographic phenomenon is usually an ascribed characteristic within the population of a specific nationality, nation or culture. Baby booms are caused by various ...

There have been eleven UK series.

Spoof

The 2013 edition of the

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

telethon featured a three-way spoof/mini-episode aired under the ''One Born Every Minute'' title and logo: a parody of the show's format with appearances by the cast of ''

Call the Midwife ''Call the Midwife'' is a British period drama television series about a group of nurse midwives working in the East End of London in the late 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. The principal cast of the show has included Jessica Raine, Miranda Hart, ...

'' along with

Matt Smith Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is known for playing the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Prince Philip in Netflix's historical series ''The Crown ( ...

the Doctor The Doctor, sometimes known as Doctor Who, is the protagonist of the long-running BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. An extraterrestrial Time Lord, the Doctor travels the universe in a time travelling spaceship called th ...

from ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' and closing narration by

Vanessa Redgrave Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress. In her career spanning over six decades, she has garnered List of awards and nominations received by Vanessa Redgrave, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony A ...

References

External links

*
One Born Every Minute, Channel 4, review
a review from ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'
New Channel 4 series focuses on Southampton's Princess Anne Hospital
A news article from Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust
One Born Every Minute: labours of love
a ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' blog article on the second UK series
Last Night's TV - One Born Every Minute, Channel 4
a review of the second UK series from ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''
Channel 4 - One Born Every Minute Episode Guide
2010 British television series debuts 2018 British television series endings 2010s British documentary television series Channel 4 documentary series British English-language television shows Television shows about human pregnancy Television series by Banijay {{UK-nonfiction-tv-prog-stub