David Attenborough narrates the new series about his most famous adventures. Photo credit BBC and Jonny Keeling
A round-up of BBC announcements, press releases and blogs, plus some highlights from our TV, radio and online output last week.
The Mind Set
On Monday BBC Learning launched The Mind Set, the UK’s first national peer-to-peer coaching network for GCSE and National students.
Ten Pieces
Following the success of Ten Pieces I for primary and II for secondary-school children, on Monday BBC Music announced the launch of Ten Pieces III, for the 17/18 academic year.
Attenboroughs Adventures
On Thursday a new interactive series of animated stories narrated by Sir David Attenborough (pictured) and inspired by his real-life adventures making natural history documentaries for the BBC launched on the CBeebies Storytime app.
Anouncements and blogs
Radio
On Wednesday (International Women’s Day) BBC Radio 3 the names of five female composers chosen for an ambitious recording project to bring long-overdue recognition to women whose musical genius has been confined to the pages of history.
Also on Wednesday, on his Radio 2 Folk Show, Mark Radcliffe announced the full line-up of artists performing at the Radio 2 Folk Awards on Wednesday 5 April, as well as revealing that singer-songwriter Ry Cooder will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. The ceremony will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2, with an hour-long highlights programme on BBC Four on Sunday 9 April.
Drama
On Monday BBC One and HBO announced original new drama series Shibden Hall brand new eight-part drama series created and by award-winning writer Sally Wainwright (To Walk Invisible, Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley).
On Wednesday BBC One and FX announced that they will team up with producers Ridley Scott’s Scott Free London and Tom Hardy’s Hardy Son & Baker for a second series of Taboo and on Thursday we published the media pack for The Last Kingdom (series two).
Entertainment
On Friday BBC One announced Partners In Rhyme, hosted by Len Goodman. Based on an original idea by Matt Edmondson and co–produced with AOP (Accidentally On Purpose) the family game show will see contestants and celebrities team up to play a series of comedy rounds, all based on rhyming clues.
Music
Q and A with singer Geri Horner ahead of the next instalment in the BBC Music: My Generation season in which she is set to take BBC Two viewers back to the 90s.
Sport
The BBC’s latest rights acquisition will see them capture all the drama and excitement of the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019, which will add to the BBC’s impressive commitment to women’s football, which includes regular programming across our TV, radio and digital services.
Learning
On Monday, the first day of National Apprenticeship Week, the BBC Academy launched the first ever traineeship to run exclusively on social media. The virtual BBC Traineeship aims to boost young people’s employability skills and confidence with a series of trail-blazing digital tutorials.
World Service
From Monday 6 March, an innovative new way for audiences to interact with BBC News became available to try with the African-designed pilot: BBC Newschatta is a chatbot, developed by Nigerian technology company Codulab.
Also on Monday BBC World Service announced it will extend its expansion by providing a digital-only service in Serbian.
Blogs
Celebrating International Women’s Day on Wednesday, we had two blogs highlighting the work of female colleagues, BBC Natural History Unit producer/director Elizabeth White talked about how wildlife filmmaking is an environment that is rich in women, and how she was inspired by Mary Adams and other female pioneers to seek out a career in the field. Esther Cox gave us an insight into her work as a Production Management Assistant (PMA) on Football Focus.
Editor Al Booth introduced the pop-up station ‘Radio 2 Country’, now in it’s third year, which ran over four days from 9-12 March alongside the huge celebration of the genre C2C: Country to Country festival in London.
We also published the 1990s instalment of Hannah Khalil’s series of blogs about familiar faces at the BBC’s Radio Drama Company.
Broadcast Highlights
Robot Wars presented by Dara Ó Briain and Angela Scanlon
- Let's Sing and Dance For Comic Relief, Saturday 4 March, BBC One
- Robot Wars, Sunday 5 March, BBC Two
- Top Gear, Sunday 5 March, BBC Two
- Clique, Sunday 5 March, BBC Three
- Britain In Focus: A Photographic History, Monday 6 March, BBC Four
- Just A Couple, Thursday 9 March, BBC Three
- Radio 2 Country, Thursday 9-Sunday 12 March, BBC Two (pop-up)
