BBC One lines up new Aussie soap

BBC One has commissioned a new Sydney-based soap from Southern Star Entertainment, the production company behind Love My Way and The Secret Life of Us.

The channel has ordered 130 half-hour episodes of Out of the Blue, on which production will commence early next year.

"This is an ambitious project that we think will break new ground, at the same time as providing daytime audiences with a compelling and intriguing watch," said BBC fiction controller Jane Tranter.

Southern Star chief executive Hugh Mars said that the new soap will be "full of life, contemporary and very broad in its appeal".

A timeslot has yet to be confirmed. Neighbours, which Blue is designed to replace, currently airs at 14:10 and 17:35 on weekdays. The new soap would be a more compatible fit for Neighbours' teatime slot than other potential substitutions under consideration by the BBC such as The Weakest Link, which runs for 45 minutes and would displace children's programming. Such a possibility has already been frowned upon by the chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons.