Make sure you check out friend of the Brand, Guide and Plas y Brenin Director of Training Martin Chester on the first episode of 'Hidden Talent' which launches Tuesday at 9pm on Channel 4.
Heres more information about the show...
Hidden Talent is a new six-part series which discovers people with extraordinary hidden talents they never even dreamed they had. Overseen by scientists and academics, over 900 people from all around the country undergo testing, and a number are found to have special physical, mental, sensory or creative talents - of which they were totally unaware, a process which could even change the rest of their lives.
Presenter Richard Bacon follows each of their progress as the Hidden Talent experts take them on, training and developing them to face extraordinary challenges and push their newly discovered Hidden Talent to its limit. These talents range from latent linguistic skills to become fluent in a foreign language, to the mammalian diving reflex enabling some people to hold their breath for up to four minutes and dive to a depth of 60 metres without scuba gear, or an extraordinary sense of direction that makes someone a Human Sat-Nav, capable of finding their way through an uncharted wilderness.
Episode 1/6, Tuesday 24th April, 9pm, Channel 4
The first episode focuses on two drastically different skills, rock climbing and lie detection. After experts test the general public in both physical and mental capacities, they narrow their search down to find the individuals that they believe had the greatest potential to excel in each field.
“We gave over 300 people, who had never even considered the sport, the chance to try rock-climbing – with amazing success” says Martin Chester “it was a great opportunity to design tests that prove there is more to climbing than bravery and biceps!”
The 10 candidates in rock climbing are put through a series of tasks in a long weekend at Plas y Brenin by world-class climbing coach Martin Chester, testing their agility, ease with heights, leadership qualities and communication skills. Maggie, a 45 year-old nurse and grandmother, is selected to take her new-found skill even further by receiving one-on-one training ahead of her final challenge: to ascend the 200ft Old Man of Stoer sea stack in Scotland, which normally takes years of training to attempt.
“I couldn’t believe how well Maggie coped with everything we threw at her – and how much she loved it! What you see on film is what we got! There are no camera tricks, no hidden ropes, and some very real consequences”
After just 18 days of intense tuition, through which Maggie displays true courage and tenacity, will she be able to show once again that she can conquer her fears and overcome this sheer 60m rockface?
“With challenging conditions on the day, the outcome was far from certain. At times my heart was in my mouth as Maggie and I gambled everything. It makes my palms sweat just thinking about it. I can’t wait to see the results”
The tests carried out on potential contributors are designed to assess aptitude rather than skills or knowledge, so viewers can also take part through specially designed interactive tests on the Channel 4 website (www.channel4.com/hiddentalent).
Maggie’s own development was made possible through a mix of Plas y Brenin courses (www.pyb.co.uk/courses-rock-climbing.php) and bespoke tuition. Contact Martin Chester’s team at Plas y Brenin for more details.
