'Culture', 'Poetry' for new BBC Two season

BBC Two's The Culture Show is to take a new enhanced role on the channel, controller Janice Hadlow has announced.

The programme will be extended to 50 minutes and will move to a new 7pm weekly weekday slot, starting in July. A Saturday night repeat is also planned.

It was also announced that the first two programmes in the series will come from the Manchester International Festival, with three others featuring the highlights of the Edinburgh International Festival.

Newsnight Review is also returning, but Hadlow said that from 2010, production of the programme will move to Glasgow.

The channel head also revealed that poetry and music will feature heavily in the new lineup.

"It's a season that's bursting with culture, with poetry at its heart," said Hadlow. "BBC Two leads a pan-BBC Poetry Season inviting all of us to let a little poetry in to our lives."

Griff Rhys Jones will launch the poetry season with Why Poetry Matters, then poetry will be explored through the eyes of celebrities such as Cerys Mathews and Robert Webb in My Life In Verse With...

In addition, the channel with air a new Matt Lucas comedy, Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire, plus a new comedy serial called Psychoville from the producers of The League Of Gentlemen.

Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding will take on her first major acting role in the recession-inspired Freefall, also starring Alfie Allen.

Also returning are The Tudors, The Wire, Springwatch, and Mary Queen Of Charity Shops.