Dave re-orders breathtaking Freestyle Motocross series Red Bull X-Fighters

Dave, the home of witty banter, has re-ordered its branded content partnership, Red Bull X-Fighters 2008, for a third year. This new series will follow the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour 2010 around the globe, where all roads lead to Rome and a high-octane final.

Ordered by Dave’s Channel Head, Steve North, this deal was put together by UKTV’s Head of Commercial Partnerships, Sally Quick. Premiering weekly from Wednesday 21st July exclusively on Dave, Red Bull X-Fighters 2010 will again be produced by UMTV. James Milnes will series produce the six shows, with UKTV’s Tess Cuming and UMTV’s Chris Gillett as executive producers.

UKTV’s Sally Quick, says: “We are delighted to be working with Red Bull again on this exciting project for Dave. Last year’s series really raised the bar with the live finale at Battersea power station, so it’s going to be really exciting to see what the Red Bull X-Fighters will make of the colosseum”!

Dave’s Steve North, comments: “It’s fantastic to be working once again with Red Bull and the X Fighters team – there is nothing quite like the adrenaline fuelled punch of bikes flying though the air. Each year the stunts get bigger and more frightening to watch so we wait with bated breath to see what they can produce in 2010”.

Red Bull’s Christie Poulos, adds: “The Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour is a high-energy spectacle in which the world’s best Freestyle Motocross (FMX) riders combine power, skill, showmanship and bravery to perform jaw-dropping tricks, reaching heights of up to 40 feet”.

Red Bull X-Fighters 2009 reached just under 3.5 million individuals over 15 episodes (premieres and repeats), up 22% versus the 2008 reach. The four rounds leading up to the live final achieved an average premier audience of 201k adults, while the live final itself attracted 273k adults, up 8% versus the 2009 slot average. The 16-34 men profile indexed massively versus adults at 199% and accounted for 30% of the Red Bull X-Fighters total audience. ABC1 adults made up 43% of the average audience across all TXs.

In 2009, the tour visited Mexico City (Mexico), Calgary (Canada), Fort Worth (Texas, USA) and Madrid (Spain) before concluding in London – the first time the competition has come to the UK in its eight-year history. A crowd of 20,000 fans descended on Battersea Power Station, the breathtaking venue for the season finale, to watch 12 of the world’s best riders perform death-defying tricks and battle it out for the world title. American Nate Adams claimed last year’s crown.

This year, the tenth world tour, will visit Mexico City (Mexico) and Giza (Egypt) followed by Moscow (Russia), Madrid (Spain) and London’s Battersea Power Station. A final stop in Rome (Italy) will crown the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour Champion. “Mad Dog” Nate Adams will aim to defend his title among the likes of Robbie Maddison, Eigo Sato, Levi Sherwood and Mat Rebeaud.

Dave’s exclusive UK coverage of this exhilarating global competition will comprise one hour weekly shows from each of the overseas events, while the London event will be broadcast for two hours as-live. Featuring the world’s greatest FMX riders performing the most hair-raising stunts possible in just two minutes, all six shows will again be hosted by maverick sports presenter Ed Leigh (The Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010, Ski Sunday, High Altitude) and retired professional mountain biker, Rob Warner, to create the perfect blend of humour, entertainment and expertise.

Dave TV’s home of witty banter has commissioned its first ever online series, following the misfortunes of the fictional FC Dave. And launches competition offering Dave sponsorship to a real five-a-side football team.

Timed to maximise build up to the 2010 World Cup, joindave.co.uk will launch FC Dave on 3rd June – a comedic, original online series aimed at football fans across the UK.

Building on joindave.co.uk’s talent links, David Baddiel has been signed to play the role of Dave channel head Steve North.

The 5×5’ part mockumentry style sitcom will follow the misfortunes of an FC Dave five-a-side football team. The series starts with the team at their lowest ebb, they have lost their sponsorship and their manager. Throughout the remaining episodes the tragic and hilarious events that led to the team’s split will be revealed. This will run simultaneously with an online competition to find a five-a-side football team deemed worthy of bearing the FC Dave name and will be rewarded with Dave sponsorship and exposure on Dave’s website – joindave.co.uk.

This is the first time UKTV has commissioned, produced and scripted an online series and the campaign will play out across several digital platforms, including joindave.co.uk, Dave’s Facebook pages, Dave’s Twitter feed, iTunes and YouTube.

The series will capitalise on football fever in the build up to the World Cup and Dave will work in conjunction with Powerleague to target the massive grassroots football community. Powerleague has given access to film at its sites as well as promoting the series and the competition on its website, email list and social networking sites.

Filming starts on 26th April and lasts for one week. FC Dave receives its exclusive online premier on 3rd June and every Thursday thereafter until 1st July. The series is made entirely in-house by the new media team with UKTV’s Giles Pooley Executive Producing the series and UKTV’s Simon Cooper Producing.

UKTV’s Giles Pooley, adds, “FC Dave is a truly exciting multiplatform project from Dave. The mockumentary series illustrates the passion an love for five-a-side football players in a witty way and we are delighted that the idea captured the imagination of five-a-side fan David Baddiel.”

Re-launched as an entertainment portal in October 2009, joindave.co.uk has further grown the award-winning brand in the online space and positioned joindave.co.uk as an entertainment destination in its own right. Key talent have been brought on board to the site – Dara O’Brien writes regular blogs, Rufus Hound has presented the exclusive Dave Digests and both Marcus Brigstocke and Rufus Hound have written exclusive Argumental blogs.

Since launching on 15th October 2007, joindave.co.uk has increased traffic by 253% to an average of 1.6million page impressions a month. On average users now spend 6 minutes 34 seconds on the site, up 58% since launch, with a 51% male, 49% female split. In addition, the home of witty banter’s website has been nominated for an NMA 2009 Award in the Entertainment category as well as a Promax BDA 2009 Award for Best Channel Website.

Sundays at 8.10pm (from Sunday 13th June)

What happens when those fire-breathing dragons leave the confines of their lair after a long day of making mincemeat out of potential entrepreneurs? Do they pack their Hawaiian shirts, shades and go off to Magaluf for a week’s holiday? Do they go to a farmers’ market to buy organic goat’s cheese? Life drawing classes in Suffolk?

Not of the above. The Dragons are all about the money, honey, and in this channel premiere series they take a break from their dragony duties to travel the country visiting those who they have invested in.

The lucky few to have gained investment from the notoriously difficult-to-impress dragons are out there in the world trying to make their business dreams a reality, and it’s now time for the Dragons to see how their investments are coming along.

Whether it’s the father-and-son team behind Ladderbox and Theo Paphitis checking up on the Ice Blades business he invested in, or Deborah Meaden visiting the Baby Loves Disco business and the moneybags quintet dropping into the pop band, Hamfatter, they invested in, the Dragons want to know that they made the right choices.

Weekdays, 10.50pm (from Saturday 19th June)

There are more musical high jinks and comic shenanigans this month thanks to the channel premiere series 23 of stalwart Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Glam-loving fruit loop Noel ‘The Mighty Boosh’ Fielding makes his debut as team captain this series opposite veteran Phill Jupitus. One person living in the Dave mansion described Noel as a cross between Marc Bolan and the BFG. We can’t argue with that.

Look out for guest hosts James Cordon, Frank Skinner, Claudia Winkleman, David Walliams, Dermot O’Leary and, gasp, David Tennant. They’re joined by panellists Paloma Faith, Jessica Origliasso, Calvin Harris, Harry Shearer, Jamelia, Charlie Brooker, Martha Wainwright, Catherine Tate and, erm, Carol Vorderman. To name but a few.

Off-the-wall sketches, new characters and the return of a few old favourites mean only one thing – Robert Webb and David Mitchell are back for another series of the BAFTA-award winning series of brilliant comedy.

This third series is a list of comedy genius – there’s the accident prone adventures of Hennimore; a TV quiz show from after the end of civilisation; the real purpose of the Giant Death Ray; Russ Claus, Santa’s troubled brother; an inventor too far ahead of his time; and the secret space cult of Vectron. You’ll find the return of drunken super-sleuth Sir Digby Chicken Caesar; more from the Lazy Writers; and a plethora of sketches on subjects as varied as murder mystery; an argument between Queen Victoria and her Prime Minister about a rather rude tree; and why firing a dog out of cannon is so much better than a doorbell.

Happy now?

What would it take for you to tell a little white lie? If you’re anything like us, very little. But if it was the difference between winning and losing on a comedy panel show, you would. You SO would.

Compulsive liars David Mitchell and Lee Mack (only in the name of comedy) are back for series three of Would I Lie To You?, this time with the brilliant Rob Brydon as host.

The format remains the same – contestants have to decide who out of the opposing team are telling porkies. It’s simple, and the simplest things are often the funniest.

Guests in series three lying though their teeth include Carol Vorderman, Larry Lamb, Jo Brand, Jimmy Carr, Claudia Winkleman, Frankie Boyle… the list is endless.

It’s absolutely rubbish, all of it. We’re lying, obviously.

Just when you thought it was safe to go into the bookshop… Yes, the grumpy old swine that is Bernard Black will still be perched behind the counter, fag, drink and scowl waiting for you.

We’re continuing our coverage of the seminal Black Books on Dave, and this month we’ve reached series three. Which means more misanthropy and more silly goings on with Bernard’s (sometimes) faithful book shop staff, Fran and Manny (Tamsin Greig and Bill Bailey).

Series three, new to Dave, doesn’t start well for Black Books. Fran returns from holiday and discovers Manny has resigned and started work at rival Goliath Books, leaving Bernard to run the shop alone. Which is never going to be good for business.

After sifting through rubbish, rotting food and dead badgers, she resolves to get the errant employee back – but his new boss has no intention of letting him go. Looks out for Simon Pegg in this one.

Lee is a man with a problem. Not normal man problems, like running out of lager or not being able to reach for the remote because it’s two inches too far away. He has real problems. His flatmate, Kate, has moved out for good and his best mate and landlord, Tim, has put the apartment up for sale. It’s not a good situation.

Faced with the prospect of losing the flat, not to mention his well-meaning, but utterly useless, cleaner Barbara, Lee rents the spare room to Tim’s ambitious younger sister, Lucy.

The arrangement turns out to be far from perfect, however, with high-flyer Lucy taking on Lee in a bidding war for the flat. Sibling rivalry turns into full-on anxiety as uptight accountant Tim quickly becomes suspicious of Lee’s influence on his kid sister.

Still unburdened by ambition or drive, Lee finds his plans for keeping the flat are not plain sailing. On the plus side, his new domestic set-up does lead him to discover the art world, the underworld, and the lengths one man will go for tickets to an England football match. In fact, Lee sounds like our kind of man.

Starring Lee Mack, Tim Vine, Sally Bretton and Miranda Hart, Not Going Out is the ultimate lads’ comedy, with the added frisson of a bit of gender warfare thrown in for good measure.