BBC Four to visit 'Lost Decade' this autumn

BBC Four controller Janice Hadlow has announced plans to air a themed season of programmes every few months.

The first of such seasons, based around the 'lost decade' of 1945-1955, forms the centrepiece of the channel's autumn schedule, announced today.

Programmes include a documentary on the infamous banana shortage, a retrospective of the 1948 Olympics and an adaptation of Simon Garfield's 'Our Hidden Lives'. Another show, Little Kinsey, promises to lift the lid on the concealed results of the nation's first ever sex survey, including such shocking revelations as "one in five men said they'd had an extra-marital affair" and "one in five men said they'd had a homosexual experience".

Hadlow added that three season ideas were already in development for 2006, including one historical and two contemporary. The strategy is akin to that of Channel 4's upcoming rival station More4, which is planning to air an expensive, "landmark" event once a month.

Other series in BBC Four's autumn slate include Asylum, a fly-on-the-wall series following immigrants from Algeria, Somalia and Afghanistan, and A Waste of Shame, a drama about the psychological turmoil endured by Shakespeare in his middle years.