BBC has ordered a wide variety of new dramas and among them, a TV adaptation of the National Theatre’s Dear England.
Featured image credit: Marc Brennar
The BBC unveiled its 12 upcoming drama commissions yesterday (21st February), as reported by The Hollywood Reporter. Among those is a commission from one of the most prolific – and trendy – studios of our time, A24.
BBC has asked A24 to adapt Kaliane Bradley’s highly anticipated debut novel The Ministry Of Time into a six-part series for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Alice Birch will be in charge of the adaptation and A24 will distribute the series internationally.
The Ministry Of Time will follow Commander Graham Gore who’s swept from his 1845 reality to the present in a time travel experiment. He’s then stuck in a flat share with a woman and has to quickly learn his way around the contemporary world.
Also among the commissions is a four part adaptation of Jamie Graham’s National Theatre hit Dear England. Graham will write all of the episodes and Rupert Goold, who also directed the stage play, will direct the series. Joseph Fiennes will also reprise his acclaimed role as Gareth Southgate.
Other highlights from the commission’s list include Film Club, the screenwriting debut of Aimee Lou Wood and Ralph Davis. The six part romantic comedy is heading to BBC Three and will star Wood as Evie, who watches a film with her friend Tom every week. Both are secretly madly in love with each other but when Tom is faced with a move across country, Evie has just six weeks, and six film clubs, to tell him how she feels.
Scrapper director Charlotte Regan is also making an eight part series about being part of a crime family, titled Mint. It’s being described as “a darkly comic and unconventional drama”.
“Mint is a world I’ve been thinking about for such a long time,” Regan said. “It’s the project that’s stuck with me endlessly and I could never get it out of my head. I’m so excited to be making it with the legends at the BBC.”
BBC has also ordered two more seasons of Blue Lights, the Belfast-set police procedural.
Zola filmmaker Janicza Bravo is also teaming up with Rebecca Hall for The Listeners. Hall plays a teacher who begins to hear a mysterious humming noise.
“This seemingly innocuous noise gradually upsets the balance of her life, increasing tension between herself and her husband, Paul, and daughter, Ashley,” according to the plot description for The Listeners. “But when she discovers that a student of hers, Kyle (Ollie West-Hamnet), can also hear the sound, the two strike up an unlikely and intimate friendship.”
This one has already finished production, which took place in Greater Manchester, and is based on Jordan Tannahill’s novel.
Other series announced by the BBC are We Go Again, The Dream Lands, The Split Up, Reunion, This City Is Ours and Lions.
