Round Up Week 41 (7-13 October)

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

Do Your Thing for BBC Children in Need’s 2017 Appeal

BBC Children in Need's fundraising campaign is asking people across the UK to channel their passions, hobbies or dreams and 'Do Your Thing' to help change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people across the UK.

BBC Sports Personality Of The Year 2017

Tickets for BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2017 go on sale this Friday 13 October at 9am.

Arrivals and departures

On Tuesday it was announced that James Harding, Director of News and Current Affairs, will stand down at the beginning of the new year. 

Announcements and blogs

Drama

The media pack for BBC One's Gunpowder starring Kit Harington and Liv Tyler was published on Monday. The network also revealed David Tennant is to lead an all-star cast in The Highway Rat, a new adaptation of the Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffle book of the same name, coming to BBC One this Christmas.

BBC One also confirmed that filming has begun for Mike Bartlett's new drama Press in London.

The network reported that series two of Doctor Foster had an average of 8.9 million viewers, with a 35 percent share, consolidated figures reveal. This is higher than series one which had a consolidated average of 8.2 million, with a 31 percent share.

Filming has also begun on BBC One's contemporary thriller Informer starring Paddy Considine, Bel Powley and Nabhaan Rizwan.

Elswhere, BBC Four announced it is to air the French drama series Missions. 

Comedy

Comedy-horror fans will be able to watch six spookily witty short films on BBC iPlayer this Halloween. Commissioned by BBC Writersroom, Fright Shorts is a series of five minute comedy-shorts, written by six brand new Northern Ireland comedy writers, aptly arriving on Friday 13th.

Children's and Learning

The media pack for Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed was published. Meanwhile, on Tuesday the CBeebies’ The Snow Queen ticket ballot opened. 

Elsewhere, it was confirmed that Tristia Harrison, CEO at TalkTalk, is the latest addition to a line-up of industry pioneers curated by the BBC to address the Children’s Global Media Summit 2017.

Blue Peter announced it will launch its milestone 60th year with the new Gold Badge Walk - a path to honour some of the well-known names who’ve received the special accolade.

Finally, on Thursday BBC Learning launched a Tomorrow’s World podcast series.

Radio

BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum's latest project Living With The Gods begins this month.

BBC Radio 4’s Commissioning Editor for Comedy, Sioned Wiliam, announced on Thursday the return of Douglas Adams’ cult classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, as well as a brand new sci-fi series from Rob Grant and Andrew Marshall, The Quanderhorn Xperimentations.

Finally two chilling dramas come to Radio 4 this Halloween as the station celebrates Fright Night: Jane Lake and The Unquenchable Thirst Of Draculadirected by Mark Gatiss.

International

BBC Learning English and The Open University have joined forces to launch Go the distance a free 10-week course which teaches those for whom English is not their mother tongue how to be a distance learner.

Meanwhile, BBC 100 Women has revealed the results of the first 100 Women Challenge, taking place in Silicon Valley. #TeamLead has created two unique products aimed at supporting women’s success in the workplace.

Elsewhere, BBC Arabic launched Trending this week a 30-minute news bulletin of what is trending on social media - it will be presented five days (Monday to Friday) a week at 15:00 GMT by Rania Attar and Ahmad Fakhoury.

Blogs

Jen Macro reported that Aberfan programmes dominate nominations at British Academy Cymru Awards; while Sarah Buckley, lead producer and Liz Gibbons, executive producer of BBC 100 Women season introduced the fifth iteration and outlined what's new this year in BBC 100 Women – The Silicon Valley Challenge. Plus we published the usual BBC iPlayer Highlights 14-20 October. 

Broadcast Highlights

• Liz Kershaw: 30 years at the BBC, Saturday 7 October, BBC Radio 6Music
• Basquiat: Rage To Riches, Saturday 7 October, BBC TWO
• Louis Theroux: Dark States - Heroin Town, Sunday 8 October, BBC TWO
• Snowfall, Sunday 8 October, BBC TWO
• Our Girl, Tuesday 10 October, BBC One
• Ronny Chieng: International Student, From Friday 13 October, BBC Three
• In Tune - Why Music? The Key To Memory, Friday 13 October, BBC Radio 3