A round-up of BBC announcements and press releases and blogs, plus some highlights from our TV, radio and online output last week.
Caroline Aherne (1963 - 2016)
On Saturday 2 July the death of 52-year-old comedy writer and performer Caroline Aherne was announced. We published a picture blog in tribute to remember her.
Children in Need
BBC Children in Need announced its final fundraising total for the 2015 Appeal, a record-breaking £55 million. The Charity said that the phenomenal total would not have been possible without the public once again coming together to help raise money to change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people.
Statements/Corporate
On Wednesday 6 July Tony Hall announced his reshaped senior leadership team at the BBC.
Earlier in the week Mark Linsey, Director, BBC Studios made a statement on on Top Gear.
Announcements
Drama
After months of speculation it was confirmed this week that Aidan Turner will be back for a third series of the award-winning hit BBC One drama Poldark.
Entertainment
Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon will host the brand new series of Robot Wars on BBC Two, with commentary from the legendary Jonathan Pearce who returns from the original series with his inimitable take on the robot battles.
Meanwhile, BBC One announced two very special Christmas specials of The Great Christmas Bake Off.
Comedy
Goodnight Sweetheart will return to BBC One as part of the landmark sitcom season: original creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran have written a brand new episode and Nicholas Lyndhurst will reprise his role as time traveller Gary Sparrow.
Factual
Dara and Ed’s Asian Adventure (w/t), a brand new 3x60’ travelogue series is coming to BBC Two featuring Dara Ó Briain and Ed Byrne.
Sport
In an exciting development for the 2016-17 season, 32 British Basketball League (BBL) and Women’s British Basketball League (WBBL) Games will be live on the BBC red button and on the BBC Sport website.
Light and Tuneful, the BBC’s Wimbledon theme tune, is 40 years old this summer, and Paul Hartnoll, of British electronic dance duo Orbital has teamed up with BBC Sport and BBC Music to give it a new twist.
Children's
Cheryl Taylor, Controller of CBBC, has announced a raft of re-commissions of some of the channel’s most popular brands, including a new series of The Dengineers (hosted by Mark Wright and Lauren Layfield) and the hit factual series Operation Ouch! fronted by popular medical duo Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken.
Digital
An international BBC iPlayer Radio app was launched this week in the Republic of Ireland, the first stage of its global roll-out.
Radio
Actress Felicity Montagu (Mrs Mainwaring in Dad’s Army; Lynn in Alan Partridge) has created a new four part comedy-drama series with her real-life daughter Olivia Nixon. Guilt Trip, which stars the pair as a mother and daughter taking part in a trialing two-week sponsored walk, will debut on 27 July on BBC Radio 4.
Regional
BBC Radio Wales launched a public vote to discover Wales' favourite Roald Dahl character. In other news from Wales it was announced that Thomas Quasthoff and Sumi Jo will join the jury for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2017 competition.
Meanwhile in the South West it was announced that Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cornwall will officially open the new BBC South West Headquarters in Plymouth on Wednesday 20 July 2016.
International
On 4 July the three people chosen as Outlook Inspirations were revealed – the day of Outlook's 50th birthday – during a special live broadcast presented by Matthew Bannister and Jo Fidgen from the Radio Theatre in London.
Plans for an extensive restructure of BBC Monitoring to provide a more responsive service for users in a rapidly changing media landscape, to increase commercial activity, and to meet savings targets, were revealed this week.
A BBC World Service global poll showed that Obama’s eight-year presidency rated well.
Meanwhile, in Uzbekistan, BBC Uzbek has activated an automated account - bot - on one of its messaging apps. The BBC Uzbek ‘newsbot’ – the BBC’s first – is now available on Telegram. The use of the ‘newsbot’ on the free cloud-based mobile and desktop messaging app means that Uzbek-speaking users now have better access to content from bbcuzbek.com which is blocked by Uzbekistan’s authorities.
Blogs
A sporty Wimbledon second week led to three sporty blogs: (Even More) Wales at Euro 2016, Annabel Croft at Wimbledon 2016 and Wimbledon: The Sweet Spot; we also previewed the advertising trail for the BBC Olympics coverage in Get ready for the Rio Olympics. BBC Soundstart 2016 - the Carleton Hobbs Bursary & Norman Beaton Fellowship revealed the winners of this year's radio drama bursaries, and Francesca Kemp, Exec Prodcuer pf the BBC Proms previewed BBC Proms on TV.
Broadcast Highlights
- Matron, Medicine And Me: 70 Years Of The NHSall week on BBC One
- Just Call Me MartinaMonday 4 July, BBC One
- Forces of Nature with Brian CoxMonday 4 July, BBC One
- Boy Meets Girl Wednesday 6 July, BBC Two
- Roald Dahl: Boy Saturday 2 July, BBC Radio 4
- Outlook Inspiration Awards Monday 4 July, BBC World Service
- Radio 1’s Summer of Dance stage live from T in the Park Friday 8 July, BBC Radio 1
