Emma Willis and Stacey Dooley return to UKTV

Emma returns to baby births while Stacey has more sleep overs.

“We’re entering an important new stage for UKTV Originals, having just won our first Bafta, we now have more successful shows returning than ever before. It’s a testament to the quality of the ideas, the talent and the finished programmes that producers are delivering us. One of our key focusses has been on working hand in hand with talent to deliver their passion projects and the success of these shows proves that a truly collaborative approach can achieve brilliant results.” – Richard Watsham, UKTV’s Director of Commissioning

Emma Willis is returning to W with a brand new series of the award-winning Delivering Babies, but this time the families are preparing to give birth in the midst of a pandemic.

Production is already underway on the UKTV Original series which will follow Emma as she tells the stories of families whose birthing plans have been thrown up in the air. Emma, who is a fully qualified Maternity Care Assistant, will help parents-to-be across the UK as they prepare to welcome their baby into the new-normal.

With the births being shot by the families themselves, this is a unique and intimate insight into what it means to bring new life into a world that’s been turned upside down. The series will follow them in the run-up to their births and when they return home – with Emma on hand to offer support and guidance on everything from breastfeeding, to sleep routines, to keeping a healthy mindset.

Award-winning documentary maker Stacey Dooley is also returning to W for the second series of her hit show Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over. The UKTV Original, will go into production in the coming days and is set to air in 2021.

In this brand-new series, Stacey will explore more unseen areas of modern relationships and family life as she spends 72-hours as a house guest, learning all the routines and rituals that make each one so unique. Whether it’s exploring the religious activities of a strict orthodox Jewish family, or the realities of maintaining the traditional lifestyle of a ‘tradwife’, Stacey will be given the opportunity to get to the very heart of each family, giving her a first-hand experience of different communities from the comfort of their sofa.

In addition to these returning shows, viewers have a plethora of new UKTV originals to look forward to including  Dave’s comedy panel show Mel: Giedroyc: Unforgivable; crime drama The Diplomat, written by Ben Richards and produced by World Productions for Alibi and retrospective The Fast Show: Just Another Load Of Blooming Catchphrases for Gold, which reunites the cast of the much-loved classic comedy for the first time and airs this Saturday.

“The past few months have been extremely challenging for the production sector and I’d like to say thank you to all of the production companies for their determination, their flexibility and their application of creative solutions to get productions back up and running. Thankfully the number of returners is not preventing significant  opportunities for new commissions going forwards and we’re busy developing the next wave of comedy ents formats that I hope will keep us at the forefront of this genre, alongside more high quality factual, drama and scripted comedy.” – Richard Watsham, UKTV’s Director of Commissioning