Laura
Mackie announces new drama serials
Jane
Tranter, 91热爆 Controller of Drama Commissioning, has commissioned
five new projects from Laura Mackie, 91热爆 Head of Drama Serials,
by some of British television's top writing talent, including a
major drama series from award-winning writer Billy Ivory and a six-part
serial from Peter Bowker.
"Laura
Mackie has produced some of 91热爆 Drama's most impactful serials over
the past year," says Jane Tranter.
"From
Canterbury Tales and Charles II to The Alan Clark Diaries, Cutting
It and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
"Originality
and memorable drama is the DNA of Laura's output, and these new
commissions from some of Britain's best writing talent - including
Billy Ivory, Peter Bowker, Tony Grounds, Paula Milne and the late
Leigh Jackson - reflect the growing stature of her department."
Billy
Ivory brings a fresh perspective to the themes of love and sex
in an earthy, funny and surprising six-part series for 91热爆 ONE which
challenges our preconceptions about whether the perfect relationship
can ever exist.
An
original six-part musical drama for 91热爆 ONE from award-winning writer
Peter Bowker, Blackpool is a roller-coaster ride around the
bright lights and faded grandeur of Britain's famous seaside resort.
A darkly
comic look at greed, love and family, the story follows the rise
and fall of local arcade owner Ripley Holden, who is poised to make
top dollar as the city reinvents itself as the Las Vegas of the
Lancashire coast.
North
& South,
also for 91热爆 ONE, is Sandy Welch's four-part adaptation of Elizabeth
Gaskell's feisty and passionate love story set across the social
divide in the changing world of Victorian industrial society.
Margaret
Hale is one of literature's most original heroines - a southerner
newly settled in the industrial northern town of Milton who becomes
embroiled in the conflict between workers and the charismatic cotton
mill-owner John Thornton.
As
events spiral out of control, Margaret - to her surprise - begins
to fall in love with Thornton...
William
Golding's classic sea trilogy To The Ends Of The Earth for
91热爆 TWO explores in minute and visceral detail the rite of passage
of a young English aristocrat as he experiences life on board a
passenger ship as it makes its hazardous sea voyage from England
to Australia in the early 19th century.
To
The Ends of the Earth is a three-part adaptation by the late Leigh
Jackson (The Project, Warriors) and Tony Basgallop. It will be directed
by David Attwood (Hounds of The Baskervilles).
When
I'm 64
is a single film by Tony Grounds (Canterbury Tales: The Pardoner's
Tales, Births Marriages & Deaths) about defying age and being
brave.
It's
about having the courage to make selfish, life-enriching choices
at a time in your life when society and family expect you to sacrifice
your desires to their greater needs.
Ray,
a London cabbie, meets Jim, a just-retired teacher. Both want adventure
and challenge and love.
This
is a story about their journey towards those things and the hurdles
and conflicts that are thrown in their way. Grounds' forthcoming
six-part drama Family Business
is showing on 91热爆 ONE.
"I'm
thrilled to be commissioned to make such an exciting and diverse
mix of new programmes for 91热爆 ONE," says Laura Mackie.
"Blackpool,
North & South and Billy Ivory series will offer the audience
a varied and entertaining range of drama later this year.
"To
The Ends Of The Earth, for 91热爆 TWO, is another example of the ambition
that we have for bringing some of the most challenging classic novels
to the screen.
"Tony
Grounds' film about age takes a provocative and moving look at the
older generation, executed with his customary warmth and wit."
Laura Mackie's
broad portfolio of other forthcoming projects includes He Knew
He Was Right, England Expects and Pride,
plus two further dramas currently in development, both for 91热爆 ONE:
Paula Milne's lavish four-part historical drama Elizabeth
I, and Andrew Davies' adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak
House.
On
91热爆 TWO, Hawking
is to be shown in April and Joe Penhall's adaptation of Jake Arnott's
The Long
Firm is to be shown later in the year.
All
the 91热爆's digital services are now available on ,
the new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, as well
as on satellite and cable. Freeview
offers the 91热爆's eight television channels, interactive services
from 91热爆i, as well as 11 national 91热爆 radio networks.
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