Channel 4 is turning its lens on prisoners for a "ground-breaking" new documentary series.

Producers have gained access to three UK prisons, including Scotland's maximum security prison, HMP Shotts, "home to some of the most notorious criminals in the British penal system", to examine what it is like to serve a long sentence in Britain.

The programme will document the experience of inmates, "from conviction and integration into the prison system, via the strict daily regime, to release and beyond".

Channel 4's deputy head of factual Amy Flanagan said the series "will follow prisoners" to give viewers "a fascinating insight into the impact of their sentence on them, their families and society in general as they finally face the prospect of life outside".

Executive producer Nicole Kleeman said: "This is the true story of life behind bars - what it is like to serve a 20 or 30 year sentence, how it changes men and their families."

The broadcaster also announced The Class Next Door, in which parents go back to school.

For one half term, a class of parents will study the same curriculum as their 11-year-old children, who will be in the classroom next door.

"They will have the same regime, don the school's uniform, sit cross legged in assembly and do PE and recorder lessons as well as face the same discipline if they misbehave" in the three-part series.

"With greater pressure on primary school children to perform in SATs, the new education reforms and the rise of grammar school culture, there has never been more of a need for us to find out exactly what is expected of our children, and what sort of pressures they are under today," Channel 4 said of the show.

And personal trainer turned Instagram sensation Joe Wicks is returning to Channel 4 to search for volunteers to commit 90 days of their lives to his regime.