March 2020 was a month like no other in television. Concern that staff might become infected by Covid-19 brought rapid changes as broadcasters cancelled filming on some of their biggest shows. For what is believed to be the first time in more than half a century, even the set of Coronation Street went dark.
The UK is being tested as never before in peacetime – and in an age when communication is immediate and uncontrollable and diffuse. But, if the nation does come together and get through the challenges of Covid-19, it will have done so with the help of the most traditional forms of public service broadcasting (PSB).
Jim Carrey returns as Jeff Piccirillo, the publicly beloved but personally tormented children’s television presenter of Mr Pickles’ Puppet Time.
The platform will include a wide range of both entertaining and educational series and films from the CBBC and CBeebies, as well as other suitable BBC programming.
To access the site, users simply have to select the monster shaped ‘children’ button when asked who’s watching.
The categories have also been simplified to make it easier for child viewers, who will find their favourite series divided into Trending, Drama, Funny and Cartoons. Live broadcasts of the CBBC and CBeebies channels can also be easily accessed.
More than 40 broadcasters, production companies and industry bodies set up home for the day in the Business Design Centre, London, to dispense advice to 1,300 young people hoping to break into TV. A series of sessions – featuring expert panels from across the industry – cast light on television genres, skills and opportunities.
BBC continuing drama head of production Nikki Saunders revealed there was a huge number of entry-level jobs across her department, including runners, camera assistants and make-up artists.
Both mother and son come of age in this new bawdy comedy series based on Tom Perrotta’s novel of the same name.
Life and Birth will be told through the eyes of the parents and staff at three of Birmingham’s busiest and most diverse maternity units, Heartlands Hospital, Good Hope Hospital and Birmingham Women’s Hospital.
Unprecedented access unveils the cutting-edge medicine used across the antenatal clinics, Fetal Medicine Centres, delivery suites, emergency operating theatres and Birmingham Children’s hospital every day.
How did you get involved with the Noughts and Crosses project?
The first of two new series, starting in autumn this year, will be lampooning the likes of Boris Johnson, Harry & Meghan, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Co-creator Roger Law will head the creative team once again, having previously established the original series.
“The new Spitting Image will be global through a uniquely British eye, it will be more outrageous, audacious and salacious than the previous incarnation,” said Law.
In a month that saw No.10 Downing Street train its guns on the BBC, Bolton was pointing out how difficult the job has become. With current Director-General Tony Hall leaving the BBC in the summer to take over as chair of the National Gallery, the search is on for candidates.
There are serious issues to address for an incoming D-G: the Government wants to decriminalise failure to pay the licence fee; the decision by the BBC to make over-75s not on benefits begin paying the licence fee again this year; and the decline in young people accessing BBC services.
