A round up of BBC announcements, press releases and blogs, plus some highlights from our TV, radio and online output last week.
BBC Children in Need Appeal 2017
This year's appeal show raised £50,168,562 for disadvantaged children and young people here in the UK, its highest on the night total to date. Radio 2 raised £7,697,361 in aid of this year’s BBC Children in Need, with a series of live auctions, text-in competitions and fundraising events.
Appointments
BBC Concert Orchestra announced the appointment of Bramwell Tovey as its new Principal Conductor.
Elsewhere Damon Pattison, currently Head of Development at BBC Studios, has been announced as the new Head of Entertainment North, BBC Studios, based across Salford and Glasgow, where he will lead the strategy for entertainment out of London.
Announcements and blogs
Drama
The Ink Factory, BBC One and AMC announced that Emmy Award-winner Alexander Skarsgård will join Florence Pugh, in Park Chan-wook’s television debut The Little Drummer Girl, based on the novel by John le Carré.
Meanwhile, an early Christmas present is to be delivered to the North of England this December, with free screenings of its most eagerly-awaited festive TV shows.
Elsewhere, BBC Two announced on Thursday that The Bridge returns for the concluding installment of the smash hit Scandinavian series.
Music
Musicians and broadcasters will talk about the musical year, giving their views on the highs and lows in the world of music over the last 12 months in the BBC Studios produced, The Year in Music 2017which will also feature this year’s BBC Music Awards.
Entertainment
They'll need to make some more monikered prizes, BBC Two's daytime quiz Richard Osman’s House of Games has been commissioned for another 50 episodes.
Elsewhere, music legend Nile Rodgers and his sensational band CHIC will be lighting up this New Year’s Eve live on BBC One as they bring some of the biggest hits ever to an unmissable music and firework spectacular in London.
Radio
On Wednesday BBC Radio announced the content highlights for the festive period.
Nations and regions
Local news industry staff join Shared Data Unit at BBC Birmingham as part of the BBC’s Local News Partnership.
Blogs
This week we went Behind the scenes at BBC Children in Need; and I was Watching Radio 4’s Keep Calman Carry On. We also published the weekly BBC iPlayer Highlights 25 November- 1 December.
Broadcast Highlights
Sticky, animated comedy with Tom Hardy, Javone Prince, Charlotte Riley, Kayvan Novak
- Michael McIntyre's Big Show, Sat 18 Nov, BBC One
- David Gilmour: Live at Pompeii, Sat 18 Nov, BBC Two
- Country Music Awards Highlights 2017 – Sun 19 Nov, BBC Four
- Sticky – from Mon 20 Nov, BBC Three
- Labour - The Summer That Changed Everything, Mon 20 Nov, BBC Two
- Insert Name Here, Mon 20 Nov, BBC Two
- Lauren Laverne In Conversation with Bjork, Tue 21 Nov, BBC 6 Music
- Blitz: The Bombs That Changed Britain, Thu 23 Nov, BBC Two
- Extreme Wives With Kate Humble, Fri 24 Nov, BBC Two
