BBC1 Autumn Schedule

Alan Yentob yesterday announced his first autumn schedule as Controller of BBC1. The £175m package is dominated by drama and comedy, with more than 80 hours of new drama and 22 new comedy and variety shows.

The political highlight will be the four-part series, Thatcher: the Downing Street Years, with frank interviews with the former Prime Minister.

Arts coverage increases with an extended 26-week season for Omnibus, documentaries will include a new David Attenborough series on life in the Antarctic. There will be a new series of Screen One films, as well as a return for many old drama favourites such as Casualty, Lovejoy and Between The Lines.

The new drama announced includes a major new series starring Michael Elphick as an ex-Fleet Street hack running a news agency in the North East called Harry; and the sequel to the award-winning House of Cards, To Play The King, starring Ian Richardson as Francis Urquhart and Michael Kitchen as Urquhart’s royal adversary. There will be a three-part adaptation of Scarlet and Black, a drama set in 19th Century France, starring Ewan McGregor. Noel Edmonds will be back in Crinkley Bottom, other favourites to return include A Question of Sport, The Generation Game and Holiday.

Sport Coverage will include the Ryder’s Cup, football’s new FA Premiership and the Formula One World Driver’s Championship.

Top films to be premiered will include Bird On A Wire and Back to The Future Part II.