BBC

Vinay Patel’s TV diary

It’s the meetings that kill you. No one warns you about the bloody meetings. Not because they’re bad – more often than not they aren’t, but they trick your brain into thinking you’re doing work when you’re not, not really.

And it can be fun. Sometimes, it takes all I can muster to prevent myself leaning across the table, grabbing my meetee by the hands and whispering, “Thank you for saving me from a life of isolation and giving me an excuse to put on my trousers.”

Meet James Longman, Broadcast Journalist

At the age of 24, James travelled to Syria to report on the early days of conflict and wrote for several UK newspapers including The Telegraph while there. 

A fluent Arabic and French speaker, Longman has worked as Beirut Correspondent for the BBC on the conflict in Syria and the Middle East and has reported on terrorist incidents across Europe, including two weeks of continuous live reporting during the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice.

Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan to star in new BBC thriller

Collateral is a high-octane thriller set in contempory London.

The four-part drama follows the repercussions of the fatal shooting of a pizza delivery man.

Single-minded Detective Inspector Kip Glaspie (Mulligan – The Great Gatsby, Suffragette) refuses to believe that the event is a random act of violence, and begins the hunt for the hidden meaning of the murder.

Happy Valley's Sally Wainwright: "I write people I want to be, not who I am"

The screenwriter received the Judges’ Award among others at the RTS Programme Awards 2017 for her “outstanding contribution to the UK’s television and media industry.”

“I feel very lucky that I have been able to achieve my ambitions and been able to do the things that I want to do,” she says humbly.

She is humble too about her past achievements: Baftas, RTS Awards, TV Choice Awards, Broadcast awards and more litter the shelves of her study in her Cotswold home.

“It’s nice to be recognised,” she says.

BBC launches Culture UK

Culture UK aims to inspire new audiences and enhance the UK’s position as a global creative force.

The BBC has partnered with Arts Council England, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the Arts Council of Wales and Creative Scotland to launch the scheme which aims to develop UK-wide cultural festivals, increase the platforms for emerging talent and develop content that can be shown on the BBC. 

Steve Carson: Our Friend in Northern Ireland

In the picturesque village of Greyabbey, on the shores of Strangford Lough, cast and crew assemble for the latest network drama to be shot in Northern Ireland. The Woman in White is a five-part adaptation of Wilkie Collins’s psychological thriller for BBC One. The period drama joins a BBC slate that in the past year has included The Fall, Line of Duty and My Mother and Other Strangers.

Regulating the BBC: A tough job for Ofcom

As Sir David Clementi begins his work as the first Chair of the “unitary board” that he recommended to run the BBC, is he having second thoughts about his other big piece of advice – that Ofcom should regulate the BBC?

It was Clementi’s report, published one year ago and largely adopted by the Government, that suggested scrapping the BBC Trust. The idea was to replace it with a single board. Meanwhile, for the first time in the BBC’s history, an external body would regulate the corporation.