TV
The first fruits of the BBC's drive to pour extra money into programming can be seen on screen this autumn when BBC ONE presents an ambitious slate of absorbing new drama as the highlight of a £189 million season of programmes.
Eleven brand new dramas line up alongside titans of the factual and comedy worlds, fusing the cream of British writing and acting names with exciting new talent.
Peter Salmon, Controller of BBC ONE, says: "This season is about boldness and about quality. Genuine ambition is evident in every genre - whether it be uncompromising drama, landmark factual pieces or new comedy. The new licence fee settlement has meant that we can begin to bridge the huge investment gap between BBC ONE and its rivals, and this season shows some of the proof with an extra £10 million being spent on drama.
"There has been a lot of speculation recently about the future direction of BBC ONE and it seems to have become received wisdom that it is set to become a channel where entertainment will rule peak time and factual programmes will migrate to BBC TWO. That is simply not true and this season will be an eloquent rebuttal to those who are under that misapprehension. Genres like science, news, current affairs and natural history will always find a home on BBC ONE."
This autumn, the new dramas line up alongside two colossal talents of the factual world, as Sir David Attenborough and Professor Robert Winston bring seminal work to the screen. And there is exclusive coverage of the Olympic Games, together with strong new comedy, news and important live events.
Drama
Common as Muck writer William Ivory brings a deliciously tempting and witty new series to the screen with The Sins, starring Pete Postlethwaite, Geraldine James and Frank Finlay. Len Green is a getaway driver who, after his latest spell behind bars, is desperate to go straight but has to constantly fight the temptations placed in his way by his well-meaning friends.
Building on the success of Vanity Fair and Wives and Daughters, Take a Girl Like You represents BBC ONE's ambition to broaden the agenda for classic drama to include adaptations of contemporary classics. Sienna Guillory joins Rupert Graves and Hugh Bonneville to take her first leading role in Andrew Davies' adaptation of Kingsley Amis' 20th century classic.
Conceived against a backdrop of child abuse scandals across the UK, Antonia Bird is directing Care, Kieran Prendiville's fictional story of one man's attempts to come to terms with the abuse he experienced as a child, and how his cries for help were deliberately ignored.
Says Peter Salmon: "Care is not about naming and shaming, it is about giving a voice to a hidden subject and I believe that the film will play an important part in the current debate. As the controller of a channel with a broad remit, which is capable of embracing the vast contradictions of warm comedy and provocative social issue pieces, that is what my job is about. And that is the very strength of BBC ONE."
Love in a Cold Climate is adapted by Deborah Moggach from Nancy Mitford's exuberant satire of English aristocracy in the 1930s. Alan Bates, Sheila Gish and Celia Imrie star alongside rising young talent Elizabeth Dermot Walsh, Rosamund Pike and Megan Dodds.
And BBC ONE's commitment to reflecting contemporary life in all its facets is also seen in Other People's Children. Leigh Jackson (author of Warriors) has adapted Joanna Trollope's emotionally searing best-selling novel about the difficulties of dealing with past relationships and stepfamilies.
Pauline Quirke and Warren Clarke team up for the first time to go Down to Earth, as a couple who give up the rat race to live a different life in the country; while Nicholas Lyndhurst also takes on a new life - as a hapless doctor who gets caught up in a gangland robbery - in Thin Ice (working title).
Factual
This season's factual output reflects BBC ONE's ambition to get under the skin of contemporary society - on both the global and the personal scale.
Two years in the making, Sir David Attenborough brings his seminal State of the Planet to the screen. After a lifetime of bringing the wonders of the natural world to the living room, he now turns towards the future. Five times since life began, apocalyptic events have rocked the planet and some species made extinct. Now he questions whether life on earth is heading for its greatest threat of extinction yet.
Professor Robert Winston, having explained to us the workings of the human body, now turns his attention to the body's enormous capacity for self repair and reinvention, and to the once remote frontiers of modern medicine that are being crossed every day. With state of the art graphics, Superhuman will reveal many images that will have never been seen anywhere before and will tell some incredible personal stories.
Pioneering camera technology that is also the hallmark of the BBC's natural history programmes now brings viewers Lions: A Spy in the Den. For the first time, the camera becomes an integral part of the landscape as 'boulder cam' takes us for the first time into the heart of the pride, and into the playground of the cubs.
BBC ONE has also gained unprecedented access to the inner workings of the adoption process in a heart-wrenching series that has been two years in the making. Longing for Love (working title) follows four couples and four local authority adoption agencies through a long journey with an uncertain destination.
Entertainment
The emphasis is again on the family as a lot of laughs come to BBC ONE with the old, the new and the favourite.
Believe it - he's back. Richard Wilson comes out of a lengthy retirement from the character to bring the final curtain down on Britain's favourite old curmudgeon, Victor Meldrew, as he finally gets both feet in the grave. One Foot in the Grave also stars Annette Crosbie, Angus Deayton and Janine Duvitski.
Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker star in My Family (working title), an original British comedy born out of the American system of team writing and from Fred Barron, a creator whose credits include Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show and Caroline in the City. Ben Harper (Robert Lindsay) is a moderately successful dentist - an appropriate occupation for someone whose entire life is akin to pulling teeth.
Multi award-winning, The Royle Family leaves room for an extra place on the sofa for the new baby, while Kiss Me Kate, with Caroline Quentin, gets a new post-watershed feel.
Autumn has always been an event on BBC ONE and this year is no different. >From a special celebration of the programmes that have been made since BBC Television Centre first opened its studio doors 40 years ago to the final of the BBC Talent campaign, the events are a mix of the traditional and the contemporary. The People's Awards makes its inaugural appearance while music stars pay tribute to the late Jill Dando in A Song for Jill.
Sport
Capturing all the passions and emotions, a commentary team that includes Sue Barker, Steve Rider, John Inverdale, Hazel Irvine, Barry Davies and Roger Black will unite the nation with the hopes and dreams of Team GB as the channel heads Down Under for 27th Olympic Games - live and exclusive on the BBC.
The Rugby League World Cup, football, rugby union, horse racing, motor sport, golf and snooker are just some of the many other sports BBC ONE also has lined up for an action-packed autumn season.
Eleven brand new dramas line up alongside titans of the factual and comedy worlds, fusing the cream of British writing and acting names with exciting new talent.
Peter Salmon, Controller of BBC ONE, says: "This season is about boldness and about quality. Genuine ambition is evident in every genre - whether it be uncompromising drama, landmark factual pieces or new comedy. The new licence fee settlement has meant that we can begin to bridge the huge investment gap between BBC ONE and its rivals, and this season shows some of the proof with an extra £10 million being spent on drama.
"There has been a lot of speculation recently about the future direction of BBC ONE and it seems to have become received wisdom that it is set to become a channel where entertainment will rule peak time and factual programmes will migrate to BBC TWO. That is simply not true and this season will be an eloquent rebuttal to those who are under that misapprehension. Genres like science, news, current affairs and natural history will always find a home on BBC ONE."
This autumn, the new dramas line up alongside two colossal talents of the factual world, as Sir David Attenborough and Professor Robert Winston bring seminal work to the screen. And there is exclusive coverage of the Olympic Games, together with strong new comedy, news and important live events.
Drama
Common as Muck writer William Ivory brings a deliciously tempting and witty new series to the screen with The Sins, starring Pete Postlethwaite, Geraldine James and Frank Finlay. Len Green is a getaway driver who, after his latest spell behind bars, is desperate to go straight but has to constantly fight the temptations placed in his way by his well-meaning friends.
Building on the success of Vanity Fair and Wives and Daughters, Take a Girl Like You represents BBC ONE's ambition to broaden the agenda for classic drama to include adaptations of contemporary classics. Sienna Guillory joins Rupert Graves and Hugh Bonneville to take her first leading role in Andrew Davies' adaptation of Kingsley Amis' 20th century classic.
Conceived against a backdrop of child abuse scandals across the UK, Antonia Bird is directing Care, Kieran Prendiville's fictional story of one man's attempts to come to terms with the abuse he experienced as a child, and how his cries for help were deliberately ignored.
Says Peter Salmon: "Care is not about naming and shaming, it is about giving a voice to a hidden subject and I believe that the film will play an important part in the current debate. As the controller of a channel with a broad remit, which is capable of embracing the vast contradictions of warm comedy and provocative social issue pieces, that is what my job is about. And that is the very strength of BBC ONE."
Love in a Cold Climate is adapted by Deborah Moggach from Nancy Mitford's exuberant satire of English aristocracy in the 1930s. Alan Bates, Sheila Gish and Celia Imrie star alongside rising young talent Elizabeth Dermot Walsh, Rosamund Pike and Megan Dodds.
And BBC ONE's commitment to reflecting contemporary life in all its facets is also seen in Other People's Children. Leigh Jackson (author of Warriors) has adapted Joanna Trollope's emotionally searing best-selling novel about the difficulties of dealing with past relationships and stepfamilies.
Pauline Quirke and Warren Clarke team up for the first time to go Down to Earth, as a couple who give up the rat race to live a different life in the country; while Nicholas Lyndhurst also takes on a new life - as a hapless doctor who gets caught up in a gangland robbery - in Thin Ice (working title).
Factual
This season's factual output reflects BBC ONE's ambition to get under the skin of contemporary society - on both the global and the personal scale.
Two years in the making, Sir David Attenborough brings his seminal State of the Planet to the screen. After a lifetime of bringing the wonders of the natural world to the living room, he now turns towards the future. Five times since life began, apocalyptic events have rocked the planet and some species made extinct. Now he questions whether life on earth is heading for its greatest threat of extinction yet.
Professor Robert Winston, having explained to us the workings of the human body, now turns his attention to the body's enormous capacity for self repair and reinvention, and to the once remote frontiers of modern medicine that are being crossed every day. With state of the art graphics, Superhuman will reveal many images that will have never been seen anywhere before and will tell some incredible personal stories.
Pioneering camera technology that is also the hallmark of the BBC's natural history programmes now brings viewers Lions: A Spy in the Den. For the first time, the camera becomes an integral part of the landscape as 'boulder cam' takes us for the first time into the heart of the pride, and into the playground of the cubs.
BBC ONE has also gained unprecedented access to the inner workings of the adoption process in a heart-wrenching series that has been two years in the making. Longing for Love (working title) follows four couples and four local authority adoption agencies through a long journey with an uncertain destination.
Entertainment
The emphasis is again on the family as a lot of laughs come to BBC ONE with the old, the new and the favourite.
Believe it - he's back. Richard Wilson comes out of a lengthy retirement from the character to bring the final curtain down on Britain's favourite old curmudgeon, Victor Meldrew, as he finally gets both feet in the grave. One Foot in the Grave also stars Annette Crosbie, Angus Deayton and Janine Duvitski.
Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker star in My Family (working title), an original British comedy born out of the American system of team writing and from Fred Barron, a creator whose credits include Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show and Caroline in the City. Ben Harper (Robert Lindsay) is a moderately successful dentist - an appropriate occupation for someone whose entire life is akin to pulling teeth.
Multi award-winning, The Royle Family leaves room for an extra place on the sofa for the new baby, while Kiss Me Kate, with Caroline Quentin, gets a new post-watershed feel.
Autumn has always been an event on BBC ONE and this year is no different. >From a special celebration of the programmes that have been made since BBC Television Centre first opened its studio doors 40 years ago to the final of the BBC Talent campaign, the events are a mix of the traditional and the contemporary. The People's Awards makes its inaugural appearance while music stars pay tribute to the late Jill Dando in A Song for Jill.
Sport
Capturing all the passions and emotions, a commentary team that includes Sue Barker, Steve Rider, John Inverdale, Hazel Irvine, Barry Davies and Roger Black will unite the nation with the hopes and dreams of Team GB as the channel heads Down Under for 27th Olympic Games - live and exclusive on the BBC.
The Rugby League World Cup, football, rugby union, horse racing, motor sport, golf and snooker are just some of the many other sports BBC ONE also has lined up for an action-packed autumn season.
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