A round-up of BBC announcements, press releases and blogs, plus some highlights from our TV, radio and online output last week.
Dramas on iPlayer
BBC drama dominated another record-breaking month for BBC iPlayer in February. Daily requests reached a record high of 9.9 million, with every single one of the top 20 most popular shows being a drama.
The Idris Takeover
BBC Three announced 'The Idris Takeover', a unique and ground-breaking season of content created and curated for BBC Three by Idris Elba. The week long collaboration will cover topics from comedy, drama, music and documentary, working with some of the best new and emerging talent in all fields and tackling issues that are relevant to young audiences today.
The New Generation Thinkers 2017
BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) announced on Thursday the ten academics at the start of their career whose research will be made into radio and television programmes for the BBC. The New Generation Thinkers 2017 have been selected after a nationwide search for the best academic ideas with the potential to be shared through broadcast.
Announcements and Blogs
Drama
The Line of Duty media pack was released on Thursday. The hit drama, written and created by Jed Mercurio, begins with DCI Roz Huntley and her team in the thick of a career-defining case, Operation Trapdoor. Series four starts on Sunday 6 March on BBC One.
Filming started on thriller series Rellik, created and written by Harry and Jack Williams (The Missing, Liar) which tells the story of a serial killer in reverse.
Comedy
We published the media pack for Red Nose Day which arrives on Friday 24 March with a host of comic favourites, including Sir Lenny Henry, Joe Lycett, Rob Beckett, Romesh Ranganathan, Warwick Davis, Sally Phillips, Jonathan Ross and French & Saunders.
On Friday BBC One and BBC Comedy Commissioning announced a series dedicated to the body of work from the much loved comedian, writer and actor Victoria Wood. Our Friend Victoria is a six-part series in which Victoria’s archive is introduced and celebrated by her friends, peers and co-stars.
Also this week it was announced that iconic comedy series Still Game will return for another series following the success of its long awaited return to TV screens last year.
Music
BBC Radio 3 announced that Fay Hield and Martin Simpson will join other acts including Eliza Carthy leads her Arms Wide Orchestra and the Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars and the Warsaw Village Band, at Uproot, a folk and roots festival as part the BBC’s commitment to Hull UK City of Culture 2017.
On Thursday International superstar and UK chart topper Katy Perry was revealed as one of the headline acts set to perform at Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Hull. Katy joined Nick Grimshaw on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show to announce she will play the Saturday night slot.
Factual
Former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John O. Brennan will give BBC One’s Dimbleby Lecture 2017, becoming the 41st speaker of the annual lecture given in honour of legendary British broadcaster Richard Dimbleby.
On Wednesday we published a Q&A with adventurer and author Simon Reeve about his journey around Turkey for a two-part series for BBC Two.
BBC Radio 4’s flagship rural affairs programme, Farming Today explores the environmental and farming opportunities that will come with Brexit in a week of programming (Monday 20 - Friday 24 March), featuring a line-up of special guests including Princess Anne, Germaine Greer, Tim Martin, Jay Rayner and Sir Tim Smit KBE.
Commissions
BBC Three launched Taxi To Training, a candid new eight part series fronted by comedian, choirboy and aspiring goalkeeper, Lloyd Griffith. The new series will offer audiences unparalleled access to some of the Premier League’s biggest stars via a behind the scenes taxi ride to their training ground.
Learning
A survey of more than 1,000 students showed 70% of 11-16 year olds have experienced one or more negative feelings in the last 12 months, ranging from feeling upset and unhappy to feeling anxious, frightened or unsafe. The survey was conducted as part of BBC School Report’s annual News Day on March 16, which this year is themed around mental health and well-being in schools.
World Service
BBC World Service English announced the launch of a 24/7 DAB+ radio service in the Netherlands in an agreement with Broadcast Digital Networks (BDN) and Mobiele TV Nederland (MTVNL) and BBC Persian presented a glittering array of cultural entertainment as well as a fly-on-the-wall documentary for this year’s celebration of Norouz - the festival of spring equinox celebrating the beginning of New Year.
Sport
On Tuesday the BBC announced an extension of its broadcast deal with the Masters Tournament, extending a relationship that now celebrates 50 years since the BBC’s first broadcast of the Tournament in 1967.
Childrens
On Friday CBBC and Beano Studios revealed that actor Freddie Fox has been cast as the voice of the comic’s much-loved mischief maker, Dennis, in the all new CBBC series Dennis And Gnasher: Unleashed, set to hit screens in late 2017.
Broadcast Highlights
Alexander Dreymon (Uhtred) between shots on The Last Kingdom.
- The Last Kingdom, Thursday 16 March, BBC Two
- The Best of British Takeaways, Tuesday 14 March, BBC Two
- Fugitives, Monday 13 March, BBC One
- Geri's 90s - My Drive to Freedom, Saturday 11 March
- Smile! The Nations Family Album, Thursday 16 March, BBC Four
- Glasgow: What's In A Label, Sunday 12 March, BBC Radio 6 Music
- Radio 2 Comedy Showcase, starts Monday 13 March, BBC Radio 2
