BBC outlines 'Knowledge' manifesto

The BBC has outlined what it claims is its commitment to serious factual programming by announcing a raft of new series for the next three years.

Speaking at at Royal Television Society event this week, BBC Vision director Jana Bennett unveiled the BBC's "Knowledge Manifesto".

Initially this will include more factual series from Andrew Marr and more business programming on BBC Two - including a series on the story of the City and a series on how new technology is reshaping business - and a peak-time science strand for BBC One.

To mark the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin's The Origin Of Species in 2009, the BBC will tell the story of homo sapiens in Human Race on BBC Two, with the channel also making Human Planet, a series looking into anthropology and vanishing peoples.

Sir David Attenborough will present a series called Life for BBC One, which tells the story of the evolution of life on the planet. The BBC will also mark the anniversary of the founding of The Royal Society with The History Of Science on BBC Two in 2009.

Bennett said all the strands would be "pan-platform," with web and multimedia elements, and be delivered in a way which can be used by schools.

She explained: "Once upon a time knowledge was the privilege of the few. Now information has been democratised. That's a good thing. But it raises big questions for the BBC which has traditionally seen itself as one of the leaders of the national conversation about knowledge and what it's important to know.

"In the world of the Wiki and the intelligent search engine, that traditional belief has begun to seem rather presumptuous. Who needs the wisdom of Auntie when you have the wisdom of crowds? What I want to argue tonight is that the BBC should be a leader in stating what it's important to know – not led by consumer need alone.

"We should embrace the need to disseminate knowledge, but also play a role in defining the canon."

She defined the BBC's role as "promoting literacy": scientific literacy, civic literacy, cultural literacy, life literacy and media literacy.

She added: "Building literacy on this scale will not be easy. But it is one of the main reasons the BBC exists. In my view, knowledge building is one of [the] BBC heartlands. If the BBC doesn't have a commanding reputation in the field of knowledge building, then it's not the BBC."