The schedule's seasonal centrepiece is 'Adopt Me', a fly-on-the-wall series that follows four households taking part in a project to find people to adopt children that no one else wants.
Tying into this theme, the channel is also carrying a drama about a young girl growing up in a children's home, starring Samantha Morton, while documentary strands 'Cutting Edge' and 'Dispatches' will both look at the issue of child care.
On a lighter note, comedian Alan Carr will be hosting a new chat show while Charlie Brooker, TV critic and blogger for The Guardian has defected from the BBC, where he wrote and presented 'Screenwipe', to write and present 'You Have Been Watching', another show about the world of television.
Also on the comedic front, British Comedy Awards winner 'The Inbetweeners' will return to E4.
Channel 4 will be running a range of historical programmes during the season, including historian David Starkey's 'Henry VIII: Mind of a Tyrant' and '1066: The Battle for Middle Earth', an attempt to envisage the Norman conquest through the eyes of ordinary men; while in 'Rupert Everett in Search of Lord Byron', the actor will trace the life of England's famous poet, traveller and sexual predator.
Other new drama comes in the form of 'Endgame', a feature-length political thriller starring Hollywood actor William Hurt and inspired by 1980s' secret talks between Afrikaners and ANC exiles.
Channel 4 will also broadcast the TV premiere of 'Hunger', the award-winning film directed by Turner Prize artist Steve McQueen about the IRA hunger strike and its leader Bobby Sands.
Gordon Ramsay makes a return to the nation's screens, embarking on a culinary tour of India in 'Gordon's Great Escape'.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 has adapted its property programming to the credit crunch and will be airing 'Kirstie's Homemade Home', in which Kirstie Allsop from 'Location, Location, Location' renovates a dilapidated country cottage using local craft while Sarah Beeny examines how property development is enduring tough times in 'Property Snakes and Ladders'.
After making history in 2002 by screening the UK's first live human autopsy, Channel 4 is again wielding the scalpel in 'Animal Autopsy'.
The programme, made in co-operation with the Royal Veterinary College and fronted by vet Mark Evans, will witness the dissection of a number of creatures, including a giraffe, elephant, whale and crocodile.
Religion-themed programmes in the line up include 'Revelations', a documentary strand examining the impact of religion on believers and non-believers, 'The Alpha Course', in which journalist Jon Ronson joins a course that aims to convert non-believers into Christians, and 'Muslim School', which reports from one of Britain's 120 Muslim faith schools.
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