A round-up of BBC announcements, press releases and blogs, plus some highlights from our TV, radio and online output last week.
RAJARS
Latest figures from RAJAR shows that Radio 4’s audience is at its highest level since records began in 1999, with 11.55 million people listening every week, with the Today programme drawin a record weekly reach of 7.66 million.
Religion and ethics
On Friday the BBC announced new religion and ethics programming for 2017 across BBC One and Two.
Announcements and blogs
Drama
Sharon Gless, star of '80s New York police drama Cagney And Lacey will join the cast of Casualtywhen the show returns for it's 31st series.
Filming has begun in Snowdonia on the latest Wales-based crime series - Hidden/Craith - to be shown next year by BBC Wales and S4C.
Comedy
BBC Three announced new comedy Ronny Chieng: International Student written by and featuring Chieng, known for his monologues on America's The Daily Show.
Entertainment
The One Show’s sofas are heading to Northern Ireland for a week of live programmes. Presenters Matt and Alex will be making their way up the Causeway Coastal Route as they head from Carrickfergus to the Giant’s Causeway from Monday 7 August to Friday 11 August.
Factual
The Bug Grub Coupleon BBC One is a new documentary that follows an innovative Welsh couple who are are researching insect farming and running the UK’s first full-time restaurant serving food containing insects.
On Wednesday BBC One announced that it is launching a new cookery competition as Mary Berry leads the charge to find Britain’s Best Cook (w/t) in a series presented by Claudia Winkleman.
iPlayer/Digital
For the first time, football fans will be able to watch the qualifying rounds for the FA Cup live via BBC Sport's digital service starting in the extra preliminary round.
International
BBC World Questions comes to South Africa when a panel of politicians and thinkers from across the spectrum join BBC presenter Nancy Kacungira at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg on 10 August.
The call for submissions for BBC Arabic Festival 2018 opened on Wednesday. A new category has been added for 2018’s festival, for Digital Journalism. All works entered must have been made after January 1, 2016, and reflect on current situations in the Arab world.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India, India’s independence from the British Raj and the creation of an independent Pakistan, the BBC’s international news services – BBC World Service, BBC World News television and the website bbc.com/news –present a season of special features and programmes.
Blogs
Divya Arya, the Women Affairs journalist for BBC World Service, gives the background to the letters from the BBC’s “Kashmir – the unseen and unheard” series which ran on BBC World Service English, BBC Hindi, BBC Tamil and BBC Urdu in #UnseenKashmir: To Srinagar, with love, from Delhi – and back, also with love.
Senior distribution manager, Neil Walker explained the decision to move the Children's and News channels on Freeview came about.
On Thursday, BBC Sport got a new logo, graphics and font, BBC Reith, named after the founder of the corporation, and we posted posted our new weekly round up of what's new on BBC iPlayer.
We were also sad to her of the death of 'All Creatures Great and Small' actor, Robert Hardy, who died on Thursday aged 91.
Broadcast Highlights
Man in an Orange Shirt, BBC Two
- Queer As Art, Saturday 29 July, 9.00pm, BBC TWO
- Orkney: When The Boat Comes In, Monday 31 July, 7.30pm-8.00pm, BBC ONE
- Man In An Orange Shirt, Monday 31 July, 9.00pm-10.00pm, BBC TWO
- World Athletics Championships 2017, Friday 4 August, 6.00pm-7.00pm, BBC TWO
- High Rise, Tuesday 1 August, 8.00pm-8.40pm, BBC RADIO 4
- WOMAD, Saturday 29 July to Sunday 30 July, BBC RADIO 3
- Prom 19: Relaxed Prom, Saturday 29 July, 12.00pm-1.00pm, BBC RADIO 3
- Partition Voices, Monday 31 July, 9.00am-9.45am, BBC RADIO 4
