Walter Presents lines up UK TV first as service passes 12m milestone
James R | On 15, Aug 2016
Walter Presents is gearing up for a UK TV first this summer, with the service about to premiere the first Hebrew language drama on a main terrestrial channel.
Channel 4’s on-demand service, which is dedicated to showcasing TV around the world, launched at the start of 2016 and has gone from strength to strength with a string of gripping and hilarious box sets. Over its first seven months, the platform (part of All 4) has clocked up over 12 million streams, building on the success of Deutschland 83, which became the most popular foreign-language drama ever shown on UK.
In another UK TV first, this August will see Walter Presents premiere Beauty and the Baker Channel 4 – the first Hebrew-language drama to air on a main terrestrial channel.
A blend of dysfunctional family comedy and romantic fairy tale, the show is a love story about a modern day princess and a pauper. Noa Hollander is a megastar, one of the richest and most beautiful women in Israel. Amos, meanwhile, works as a baker and still lives at home with his parents, in a cramped apartment in a Tel Aviv suburb. When he’s not helping out in the family bakery, he’s busy being berated by his domineering soon-to-be-ex-girlfriend of nine years, Vanessa.
Noa and Amos are galaxies apart but when their worlds collide, sparks (and soup) fly. Can their love survive her jet-setting lifestyle and overbearing agent, his meddling family, both their exes and the media circus that surrounds them?
The series was a big hit in Israel, becoming one of their highest-rating home-grown series ever. A second season has already been commissioned. Walter Presents will be hoping for a similarly happy ending here, with Assi Azar’s show sporting a case that includes Jason Lewis (Sex and the City, Brothers & Sisters) and Mark Ivanir (Schindler’s List, The Good Shepherd). .
Episode 1 of the programme premieres at 10pm on Channel 4 on Tuesday 23rd August, with the full series available exclusively to stream on Walter Presents after its broadcast.
For more on Walter Presents, including what’s new and what’s worth catching up with, click here.