'The Culture Show' moving closer to peak

BBC Two's The Culture Show is to be moved closer to peak time, controller Roly Keating has confirmed.

"We've got to get smart, intelligent, contemporary culture into the mainstream," he said. "I have ambitions to move The Culture Show even closer to peak."

Keating cited The Culture Show as a programme that reinvented coverage of cultural issues on Two, and added that he is looking to similar reinventions to fulfil other parts of the channel's output such as history and science.

In particular he considered the futures of Timewatch and Horizon, citing Who Do You Think You Are and Andrew Marr's History of Modern Britain as examples of fresh takes on modern social history. He called on programme makers to offer new formats rather than depending on a few long-running franchises to "connet specialist knowledge with big mainstream audiences."