Launching the BBC ONE autumn season of programmes, Peter Fincham says:
"Last year when I set out my stall for BBC ONE I talked about three key things
- quality, range and talent. This season's got all three.
"You won't see any narrowing of the range on BBC ONE
- there's drama, comedy, comedy drama, entertainment, documentaries, current
affairs, science, arts and history - you name it, it's there.
"And quality
is delivered across the schedule with ground-breaking drama, innovative
specialist factual series and the sharpest new comedy.
"But above all this is a BBC ONE bursting with top talent. Some old, some
new, some familiar, some almost unknown. BBC ONE's the biggest stage around
and it needs the best talent to fill it - I think we've got it this autumn.
"A modern, exciting, rich and surprising BBC ONE - that's
what we're aiming for here."
In drama, newcomers Jonas Armstrong and Ruth
Wilson take on two iconic lead
roles as Robin Hood and Jane
Eyre respectively; Sally
Wainwright tackles
politics with heart in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard and award-winning writer and
director Dominic Savage addresses the issue of social inequality in Britain today
in a major one-off film drama with the working title London.
Fresh from success
on the award-winning Bleak House, Susanna
White directs Jane Eyre.
Dominic Minghella's Robin Hood features Keith
Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham
and Richard Armitage as Guy of Gisborne; Colin
Firth, Anne-Marie Duff, David
Oyelowo and Robert Carlyle star in London; Hermoine
Norris joins the Spooks team;
and Toby
Stephens plays Mr Rochester in Jane Eyre.
Lizzie Mickery and Dan Percival, previously
known for BBC ONE's Dirty War, have set
a conspiracy thriller starring Jason Issacs in the diplomatic
worlds of Britain and the US in The State Within, The
Innocence Project, made by Paul
Abbot's award-winning
production company Tightrope, introduces a cast of fresh new acting talent
to the pre-watershed audience led by Lloyd Owen (Monarch
of the Glen).
In comedy and entertainment, some of the biggest names in the business - Jonathan
Ross, Graham Norton, Bruce
Forsyth, Caroline Aherne, Craig
Cash, Dawn French,
Sue Johnston and Jennifer Saunders - are
joined by artists established off the screen but commissioned for the first
time on BBC ONE.
Omid Djalili is one of Britain's best known contemporary comic
performers and a multi-award-winning stand-up comedian, and now he is writing
and appearing in his own BBC ONE stand-up and sketch show; Bafta award-winning
comic Lee Mack writes and stars in Not
Going Out, a brand new sitcom; and Alexander
Armstrong and Ben Miller are re-united in The
Armstrong and Miller Show.
Ricky Tomlinson, Sue Johnston, Caroline
Aherne, Craig Cash, Ralf Little and Liz
Smith are back together again as the nation's favourite family return in
a one-off special of The Royle Family.
Five comedy drama singles this autumn showcase an abundance of on-screen and
writing talent.
Peter Capaldi (The Thick
Of It) and Sarah Parish (Much Ado
About Nothing; Cutting It) star in Aftersun, written by David Nicholls (Cold
Feet); Ralph Ineson (The Office) stars in Magnolia, written by Dave Spikey
(co-writer and co-star of Phoenix Nights); Sarah Lancashire stars in Angel
Cake; Lenny Henry in Berry's Way; and Alan Davies in The Good Housekeeping
Guide.
Written by Jennifer Saunders and starring Sue
Johnston, Joanna Lumley, Dawn
French,
David Mitchell, Sally Phillips, Maggie
Steed, Doreen Mantle and Pauline
McLynn,
Jam and Jerusalem takes an affectionate look at village life and the empathy
and togetherness found in a local community where everyone knows everyone
else's business.
Planet Earth returns to continue the ultimate portrait of our planet with six
more programmes covering new habitats with the same unique depth and access
as the first series.
Narrated by Sir David Attenborough, Polar, Plains, Forests,
Jungles, the Shallow Sea and Ocean Deep are all featured. Using innovative
filming techniques means the Planet Earth team have been able to deliver astonishing
and critically acclaimed programming.
In science, Head Doctors spends a year with the patients and doctors at one of
the world's leading brain hospitals, The National Hospital for Neurology
and Neurosurgery, bringing viewers a dramatic insight into the pioneering work
of a 200-year-old institution.
Professor Robert Winston draws on his 30 years of experience in the field to
present a landmark series that follows couples desperate to conceive as they
receive the newest treatments available. A Child Against
All Odds will examine
the complex moral and social issues, following ordinary people in extraordinary
situations.
Who Do You Think You Are? puts
its roots down on BBC ONE this autumn and lining up to delve into their family
pasts are stars from stage and screen: Barbara Windsor, David Tennant, Colin
Jackson, Julia Sawalha, Jeremy Irons, Nigella Lawson, Robert Lindsay and David
Dickinson.
Griff Rhys Jones explores Rudyard Kipling's life and work in
an arts documentary travelling to his homes in India, Pakistan and Britain and What
Not To Wear
returns to BBC ONE with two exciting new presenters - Mica Paris and Lisa Butcher.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to the channel for a fourth series of the hugely
successful Saturday night entertainment show, and Boycie and Marlene celebrate
their first year in the country in The Green Green Grass.
Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of An Empire charts a period of 600 years – from
the rise of the emperors to the sacking of Rome – and allows viewers to witness
great battles, rivalries, rebellions and momentous achievements as they happened
centuries ago.
JF
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