A round-up of BBC announcements and press releases and blogs, plus some highlights from our TV, radio and online output last week.
Strictly Come Dancing
This week celebrity contestants started to be announced for the new series. Former MP Ed Balls, singer and actor Will Young, TV presenter Laura Whitmore, Sports Broadcaster Ore Oduba and Kiss FM Presenter Melvin Odoom are the first five to be confirmed.
2016/17 Football on the BBC
Gary Lineker and Match of the Day return to BBC One on Saturday 13 August, celebrating the start of a new Premier League season and a wealth of BBC football content available 24/7 across TV, radio and digital platforms.
Announcements and blogs
Drama
Toby Jones, Andrea Riseborough and Kim Cattrall have been confirmed to star in The Witness For The Prosecution for BBC One.
Comedy
BBC Two has announced three further comedy sitcoms for the New on Two strand airing next month as part of the BBC Landmark Sitcom Season. Our Ex Wife, We The Jury and The Coopers Vs The Rest will air alongside the previously announced Home From Home and Motherland.
Meanwhile BBC Three has annouced six new Comedy Feeds this September.
Factual
BBC Two has recommissioned The Great Interior Design Challenge from Studio Lambert for a fourth series as it moves to a primetime slot, with Kelly Hoppen MBE joining as judge.
Elsewhere, BBC One’s DIY SOS is set to re-visit Manchester this autumn.
Children's
Great British Bake Off 2015 winner Nadiya Hussain is joining the new series of Junior Bake Off, currently filming for transmission on CBBC later in the autumn.
Radio
Justin Bieber has invited BBC Radio 1 into his LA home for exclusive performance.
National
The BBC's Make it Digital Traineeship has launched in Belfast; which becomes latest city to benefit from UK-wide initiative.
International
BBC World Service announced that, for the first time ever, BBC Burmese radio programmes will be rebroadcast by Myanmar’s state broadcaster, Myanmar Athan (Myanmar Radio) expanding the BBC Burmese service’s footprint in Myanmar further.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that the BBC reaches 111 million people across all media platforms in Africa via the BBC World Service, the BBC World News TV channel and bbc.com as well as the international development charity BBC Media Action.
Finally, it was revealed that the BBC Pashto TV programme BBC Naray Da Wakht (BBC World Right Now) will be part of the daily schedule of Pakistan’s new Pashto-language channel, Mashriq TV, which starts broadcasting on Sunday 14 August.
Blogs
In Clangers, Bagpuss & Co at the Museum of Childhood we have a look round the exhibition celebrating the work of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin who made classic children's television as Smallfilms. And our own Jen Macro visited BBC Hoddinott Hall to for a feature length episode of Casualty celebrating the show's 30th anniversary.
Broadcast Highlights
Tracks, BBC Radio 4
- The Mystery Of Van Gogh’s Ear, Saturday 6 August, BBC Two
- BBC Proms 2016: The Planets With The National Youth Orchestra, from Saturday 6 August, BBC iPlayer
- Brexit: The Battle For Britain, Monday 8 August, BBC Two
- BBC iPlayer exclusive: Training Tunes - Team GB, from Friday 12 August , BBC iPlayer
- The Clintons, from Saturday 6 August, BBC Radio 4
- Edinburgh International Festival 2016, from Monday 8 August, BBC Radio 3
- What's The Story? The Story Of Oasis, Monday 8 August, BBC 6 Music
- The Conversation: Olympians, Monday 8 August, BBC World Service
- Tracks, from Tuesday 9 August, BBC Radio 4
