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Round Up Week 40 (30 September-6 October)

Hannah Khalil

Digital Content Producer, About The BBC Blog

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Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson have been confirmed to star in King Lear on BBC Two

A round up of BBC announcements, press releases and blogs, plus some highlights from our TV, radio and online output last week.

Equal Pay Audit and Pay Gap Report

This week the BBC published a number of documents, including an independent audit of BBC pay; its gender pay gap report; and a full management response to the outcome of both.

Awards and Competitions

Welsh novelist and TV scriptwriter, Cynan Jones, has won the BBC National Short Story Award 2017. 

Elsewhere four competitions were launched: The BBC World Service and British Council launch International Radio Playwriting Competition 2018; the Radio 2 Young Brass Award 2018; BBC Sport began its search for the Young Sports Personality of the Year 2017 and the search for Young Commentator of the Year 2017.

Appointments

Mark Linsey has appointed Suzy Lamb to Genre Director, Entertainment & Events, BBC Studios.

Announcements and Blogs

Drama

In a busy week for the Drama team BBC One confirmed that filming on Russell T Davies' major three-part drama A Very English Scandal has begun, and released the first picture. In addition, it was confirmed that Richard Madden (Game Of Thrones, Cinderella, Electric Dreams) and Keeley Hawes (Line Of Duty, The Durrells, The Missing) will lead the cast of Bodyguard, a timely original six-part drama, created and written by Jed Mercurio for BBC One. 

The channel also announced a major new World War Two drama World On Fire by Peter Bowker, multi-award winning writer of BBC shows The A Word, Marvellous and Capital; as well as a brand new six-part drama commission written by award-winning novelist and screenwriter Amanda Coe (Apple Tree Yard, Room At The Top) The Trial Of Christine Keeler.

Meanwhile, BBC Two announced that Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning actor Jon Hamm (Mad Men, Baby Driver, Bridesmaids) will be joining the cast of Good Omens, in the role of the archangel Gabriel. The network also revealed that award-winning writer and director Andrew Haigh (Lean On Pete, 45 Years, Weekend) will adapt and direct The North Water, based on the critically acclaimed novel from Ian McGuire. Finally, BBC Two announced a new drama series, Trigonometry by Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods.

Finally, on Thursday the King Lear cast (pictured above) was announced for BBC Two including Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson with Richard Eyre directing.

Comedy

BBC Four confirmed that Stephen Tompkinson, Neil Maskell and Mark Bonnar are to star in BBC Four's Eric, Ernie & Me.

Factual

On Thursday, David Brindley, Head of Commissioning, Popular Factual and Factual Entertainment announced five new commissions from BBC One and BBC Two.

Music

BBC Music announced a world-exclusive hour-long entertainment show Sam Smith At The BBC, for BBC One this autumn, presented by Fearne Cotton.

Meanwhile, BBC Four announced Nile Rodgers will guide viewers through his musical legacy in a new three-part series for BBC Four this October, titled Nile Rodgers: How To Make It In The Music Business.

Radio

On Thursday BBC Radio 1Xtra announced that MistaJam will present the station’s drivetime show from Monday to Thursday, 4-7pm from 6 November. In addition, BBC Radio 1 announced a new late night entertainment show hosted by Charlie Sloth.

Meanwhile, BBC Radio 2 revealed details of its 2017 In Concert season.

Regional

Next week BBC Northern Ireland will host Book Week in partnership with Libraries NI.

International

It was confirmed that unique new series, Ogaal, that will help Somalis cope during the current drought, begins on Tuesday 3 October on BBC Somali.

Elsewhere, BBC News began a major expansion in India, launching news services in four Indian languages: Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi and Telugu - and relaunching a nightly TV news bulletin in Hindi, BBC Duniya, to be broadcast on India News.

Blogs

Margaret Burgin, Senior Manager, BBC School Report blogged about BBC School Report Sports Reporter scheme; Rupa Jha, Head of Indian Languages, reveals plans for the expansion of the World Service in India; in addition, director Nimer Rashed, one of the original cohort for BBC Writersroom New Directors’ Scheme looked back on his experience and shared his aspirations for the future. We also published BBC iPlayer Highlights 7-13 October.

Broadcast Highlights

Tony Blackburn features along with other Radio 1 DJs in a special 3 day station celebrating the 50th anniversary of BBC Radio

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