Red Planet has invited four rising screenwriters to join the programme, where they will be paired with an established showrunner to develop an original idea from the its inception to production.
The first stage of the scheme will see the writers develop a contemporary crime thriller. The eight-part series, set in London, will be developed from start to finish by the Writers’ Room and be led by Red Planet CEO Tony Jordan.
Babs, penned by Eastenders and Hustle scriptwriter Tony Jordan, documents 50 years in the life of Dame Barbara. From her evacuation as a child during World War Two through to 1993, before her soap opera debut as the iconic Peggy Mitchell.
Detailing her troubled marriages and a complicated relationship with her father, the 90 minute film celebrates the actor's early days on stage in Blackpool and her breakthrough performances in the Carry On franchise.
Start the week with a meeting in Dubrovnik about a new project we are working on. Although I can’t say much about it yet, I can say that Dubrovnik is incredibly beautiful, despite people constantly pointing at places where scenes for Game of Thrones were shot.
Set in the 1990s, Babs sees Windsor preparing to perform in the theatre that evening, where she talks us on a journey of the events and people that shaped her career, from her lonely childhood and complicated relationship with her father, to capturing the attention of Joan Littlewood and being cast in the Carry On films.
The 20-part series is due to launch over Christmas and is written by former EastEnders writer and Hustle creator Tony Jordan.
The show features some of Charles Dickens’ most popular characters living and interacting on one street. Jacob Marley, Scrooge’s business partner from A Christmas Carol, has been murdered and Inspector Bucket (Stephen Rea, The Honourable Woman) is sent to investigate.
W1A’s Ophelia Lovibond will star alongside Michael Landes, best known for appearing alongside Tamsin Grieg in Love Soup, in new Sky 1 drama Hooten & The Lady.
Landes will play Hooten, an adventurer, who teams up with Lady Alexandra Lindo-Parker (Lovibond) from the British Museum to go in search of lost treasures, from the tomb of Alexander the Great to the Buddha’s missing scroll.
“This is an incredibly ambitious show which I hope will be appointment to view television for a discerning drama audience on Sky 1,” said showrunner Tony Jordan.
In a smooth transition, the personable Polly Hill has become the BBC’s new Controller of Drama Commissioning. She takes over without so much as dropping a script from LA-bound Ben Stephenson.
Her new job is one of the most coveted and powerful positions in UK television. Hill is responsible for the wide range of drama across BBC One and BBC Two, an estimated budget of £200m annually, spiced with the challenge of devising a new online policy, principally for BBC Three. She also has oversight of EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.
