BBC To Spend £189 Million On Autumn Schedule

The BBC has poured £189 million into BBC 1’s autumn schedule in an effort to prove that its plans for a themed future for its TV output (see BBC Plans Themed Future For TV Channels) will not see the flagship channel dominated by entertainment.

Announcing that the new season will see an extra £10 million spent on drama, BBC 1’s controller, Peter Salmon, insisted that “Genres like science, news, current affairs and natural history will always find a home on BBC 1.”

The availability of extra cash has been attributed to the licence fee settlement (see BBC Digital Licence Fee Plans Rejected) which Salmon says “Has meant that we can begin to bridge the huge investment gap between BBC 1 and its rivals.” Doubtless some of this new-found wealth will have gone towards retaining and gaining the famous faces rounded up for the season, among them Pete Postlethwaite, Judi Dench, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Pauline Quirk and David Attenborough.

A total of 11 new dramas, including an adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s Love in a Cold Climate, are set to add weight to the schedule. Meanwhile Richard Wilson has been dragged out of retirement to give Victor Meldrew his swan song in the last series of One Foot In The Grave (this is a promise the BBC will definitely keep, as Victor dies in the final episode). Award-winner The Royle Family will also return for a new series, while Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wannamaker will take the leading roles in a new sitcom with the working title My Family.

Whether the autumn programmes will succeed in winning back the youth audiences BBC 1 is said to be lacking is questionable. However the fight for to attract the young ‘uns continues on another front today, as Essentials, the BBC’s information website for 15-24-year-olds launches. The site, which is backed by Radio 1, aims to provide advice and information over five subject areas: work, life, travel, money and student.

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