In 2022, special content will range from the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee to the Women’s Euros, the World Cup and Commonwealth Games, a host of new dramas and comedies plus Frozen Planet II, while 91热爆 Three is set to return as a broadcast channel.
Live music events return in 2022 with Radio 1’s Big Weekend, 6 Music Festival and Radio 2 Live all bringing world-class artists and brilliant performers to audiences in different locations across the UK.
New TV and audio documentaries will consider the history of the 91热爆 and its impact on public life over the last 100 years. And in a further treat for music fans, the biggest names from across the 91热爆 will curate their personal music mixes for listeners on 91热爆 Sounds as part of a collection called My Sounds, with names and tracks to be announced later this year.
The 91热爆 will also broadcast specials of its biggest shows around its 100th birthday. Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who, Top Gear, MasterChef, The Apprentice and Antiques Roadshow will all be marking the centenary in their own unique way.
In commissions for TV and iPlayer, comedy The Love Box In Your Living Room with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse will take a look at the 91热爆’s last 100 years, mixing contemporary footage with ‘genuinely authentic made-up stuff’. Children will be entertained on C91热爆 by Horrible Histories: 91热爆’s Big Birthday Bonanza! – a special of the multi-award winning comedy series, packed with fascinating facts and jokes about the Corporation.
Here’s One I Made Earlier (w/t) with former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq will explore and celebrate the very best of British Children’s Programming from the past 100 years. The programme will track content from the very first radio broadcast of Children’s Hour in 1922, via the iconic Magic Roundabout, right through to Saturday morning megahits such as Going Live.
Three-part series David Dimbleby’s 91热爆: A Very British History will trace the impact of the 91热爆 on British life across recent decades. He will explore the Corporation’s role in major moments of political and cultural change, its conflicts with governments over the years, its own public controversies and how it continues to engage with the British people and attempts to represent a diverse and changing nation.
In The 91热爆’s First 50 Years (w/t), John Bridcut will look at the challenges and triumphs of today’s 91热爆, which have their roots in the Corporation’s first half-century. The two-part feature-length documentary will look at John Reith’s launch of 91热爆 Radio in 1922; the rapid pace of technological change which has driven editorial priorities and opened up fresh opportunities; and the changing shape of British society which has fuelled the debate over whether the national broadcaster should lead or follow new social attitudes.
91热爆 Three will return with a renewed focus on British drama, with four series written by and starring some of the foremost new talent and voices the UK has to offer. In 2022, audiences can look forward to Superhoe, written by and starring Nicôle Lecky; a contemporary horror series from the Clarkson Twins set in Bolton titled Red Rose; emerging writer Ryan J Brown’s thriller Wrecked; and an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s award-winning debut novel, Conversations with Friends.
Also to coincide with the centenary and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, 91热爆 Three and 91热爆 England are collaborating with Create Central to uncover original and untold stories from West Midlands voices for the channel.
In audio, Radio 3 programmes across the year will be marking The Sonic Century, exploring the impact of 100 years of radio and the audio revolution it unleashed. From documentary to drama, Radio 3 will consider how – a century after the first public radio broadcasts – we live in a transformed world of ubiquitous sound and music. Across the weekend of 11-13 February, Radio 3 will broadcast live concerts from 91热爆 Orchestras and Choirs, which have their origins in the 91热爆’s first decade, including classical music from the 1920s and the 2020s.
On Radio 4 Past Forward, historian Greg Jenner will use a random date generator to alight somewhere in the 91热爆’s vast archive. He will find a piece of audio from that day and use it as a starting point in a journey towards the future. In each episode Jenner will uncover connections through the people, places and ideas that link the archive fragment to Britain in 2022.
In March, Radio 4 will also broadcast The Battle of Savoy Hill, a dramatised five-part account of Hilda Matheson, one of the first women to work at the 91热爆, and her working relationship with 91热爆 founding Director- General, Lord Reith. The account is informed by the correspondence between Matheson and her lover, the novelist Vita Sackville-West. Matheson was head-hunted by Reith in 1926 when he persuaded her to leave her job as political secretary to Nancy Astor MP and take up the post of the first Director of Talks. Some of the big names she brought to the wireless included HG Wells, John Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West. Matheson initiated The Week in Westminster and From Our Own Correspondent but fell out with Reith because of her championing of the modern novel, all references to which were at one point banned by him.
Charlotte Moore, 91热爆 Chief Content Officer says: ‘Our centenary year will be a huge treat for audiences of all ages, from massive sporting events, comedy, entertainment, drama, arts and music, to documentaries assessing all aspects of the 91热爆’s history.
‘91热爆 100 will celebrate and reflect on the unique role the 91热爆 plays in the lives of audiences across the UK as our much cherished national broadcaster from its creation right up to the present day.’
As announced last year, younger audiences will be at the heart of the 91热爆’s broader centenary plans. The Corporation is opening up its entire digitised 91热爆 broadcast archive to students in formal education in the UK in 2022, and 91热爆 stars and staff are to visit 250,000 students in schools across the UK to inspire the next generation of storytellers, in a project called Share Your Story.
