Channel 4 commissioning editor Adam Gee has picked up a television Bafta for the website Embarrassing Bodies Online.
The site is a spin-off from Channel 4 programme Embarrassing Bodies, which features people with unusual body conditions that they are too embarrassed to visit their doctor about. More than 2.5 million videos have been watched on the site. It is one of the most viewed areas on www.channel4.com.
Mr Gee, 45, responsible for commissioning the web version of the show, tells People: “It has been an amazing project. It is about preventative approaches to health. Channel 4 is good at making that kind of thing entertaining and valuable.”
Content has included a person with a bad case of verrucas, people worried about abnormally large body parts and a guide on how to check for dangerous lumps. “There are people out there that are suffering when there may be loads of other people with the same problem. It [the programme] enables people to learn from each other. I think people appreciate honesty and openness.”
Mr Gee was headhunted by Channel 4 in 2003. He is their cross-platform commissioner for factual programmes. His projects include the Big Art Mob, Sexperience, Picture This, Landshare and Empire’s Children.
He has won over 50 international awards, including two Baftas and Royal Television Society (RTS) Awards, but says this one is particularly meaningful. “It feels a bit more like a coming of age. I didn’t think we had a hope in hell of winning.”
