Knitting needles at the ready, as Channel 4 commissions brand new crafty competition series The Game of Wool for More4.
With over 101 million viral ‘knitting’ videos on TikTok and global stars such as Tom Daley, Lorde, Ryan Gosling and Nicholas Hoult all mastering the skill of yarning over, it’s safe to say that wool has once again become ‘cool’.
This 8 x 60’ series, produced by Glasgow-based Hello Halo (part of STV Studios), sees 10 ambitious creatives take on a series of complex challenges where they have the chance to win a money-can’t-buy prize and be the UK’s first TV knitting champion. Banijay Entertainment will represent the format and finished tape sales internationally.
Set against the picturesque countryside of rural Scotland, which is steeped in knitting and wool heritage, each episode sees the knitters tackle two challenges: ‘The Big Knit’ where they’ll be working together in teams on an extremely complex project, as well as ‘The Wee Knit’ where they’ll take on individual briefs that will really test their capabilities, skill level and whether they can tell a Fair Isle from Intarsia.
Each week, the competitors must create a whole host of unique makes and larger than life sculptural pieces – all made from wool. These include clothing, jewellery, home accessories, furniture, sculptures and they may even try their hands at ‘yarn bombing’.
But the knitters should be truly stitching themselves, as they’ll be under the watchful eye of two established and respected creatives from the world of wool – Di Gilpin and Sheila Greenwell. Known for their work knitting for fashion juggernauts such as Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith and NIKE, Di and Sheila will be sure to put the knitters through their paces. Di will be judging their creative approaches, whilst Sheila will be inspecting their technique.
But our formidable pair of experts won’t be alone: each week they’ll be joined be a celebrity guest judge who’ll help them decide who goes through and who’ll be ‘cast off’ home.
At the end of the competition, only one will win the glory of being the first winner of The Game of Wool.
The Game of Wool was commissioned by Senior Commissioning Editor, Clemency Green, with Head of Lifestyle, Jo Street. Executive Producers for Hello Halo are Wendy Rattray and Joff Wilson, with Kaia Kryda as Development Producer.