BBC One boosts drama output

BBC Controller of Drama Ben Stephenson (pictured) has boosted the corporations’ original British drama output with new commissions and a returning series.

Five new commissions and one recommission were revealed yesterday.

Ben Stephenson says: “2012 has been a record-breaking and award-winning year for BBC Drama and our new 31 hours of programming illustrates our sheer dedication to British Drama.
“The BBC commissions more drama than any other broadcaster with over 450 hours of drama a year delivering a range of high quality, creative, ambitious television. We are the home of British Drama and combine the UK’s hottest talent both on and off screen to produce the highest quality programmes that aim to up the ambition and scale of our output.”

What Remains is a four part drama described as ‘a state-of-the-nation whodunit, in which the neighbouring residents are the chief suspects. Every flat has its own story to tell, in equal weight. In one way or another they all had some sort of connection with the victim.’
In the three-part The Escape Artist a talented junior barrister, Will Burton, of peerless intellect and winning charm who specialises in spiriting people out of tight legal corners. He is in high demand as he has never lost a case. But when his talents acquit the notorious prime suspect in an horrific murder trial, that brilliance comes back to bite him with unexpected and chilling results.
From the team behind BBC Two’s critically-acclaimed United is a two part drama telling the stories behind the most infamous heist in British history on its 50th anniversary: ‘The Robbers’ Tale’ tells the story of the gang whose audacious crime secured unheard of wealth and the wrath of the Establishment. ‘The Coppers’ Tale’ tells the story of Tommy Butler and the crack team of detectives he assembled in his relentless quest to bring the robbers to justice.
Happy Valley is a six part series which follows drama in West Yorkshire where Catherine Crowther is a sergeant on duty when flustered, nervous-looking accountant Colin Weatherill comes in to the police station to report a crime. He’s reticent about the details and Colin loses his nerve. The crime he was trying to report was Colin’s own brain-child, a plot to kidnap his boss’s daughter and keep enough of the ransom to put his kids through private school. And now local drug king-pin David Cowgill has put the plan into action, and Colin’s fantasy has become a grim and dangerous reality.
Another six-part series is By Any Means which the beeb describe as a ‘thrilling drama follows a covert police department that, when the legal system fails, go to any lengths to bring the criminal elite to justice.’
The returning series is Inspector George Gently which will see four new episodes in this its seventh outing on the BBC. The series will be set in 1969.