The ads, which are carried as loose inserts in The Times, The Guardian and Evening Standard today, show a picture of an old man in prison garb with chains around his wrists. The headline reads: "Killing Time".
They are shot in a similar way to the ads for last week's 'Cutting Edge' documentary about last year's disastrous Miss World contest held in the poverty-stricken, mainly Muslim country of Nigeria. That insert showed a beauty queen holding an AK-47.
The inserts are part of a drive by the channel to promote its factual programming and broaden its audience.
The documentary has been filmed by Rex Bloomstein, who made a documentary about lifers in 1982. For the new film, he has managed to track down the stars of the original programme and eight agreed to be filmed for the new one.
They include Ted, a high-security, category A prisoner who brutally murdered a DHSS worker; Bob, who was convicted of manslaughter for killing and sexually assaulting a young woman; and Steve, who suffers from mental illness and is held in a secure psychiatric hospital.
The second part features ex-lifers who have now moved out into the community, including Joyce, who served a life sentence for her involvement in battering an old lady to death with a brick, and Peter, who served life for arson following an obsession with murdering his wife.
Channel 4 will be running a series of witty and provocative ads over the coming months as part of a drive to raise awareness of its factual programming.
The ads were created by Channel 4's in-house division 4Creative, strategy and planning was through Michaelides & Bednash and media was bought by OMD.
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