The show follows Luella Shakespeare (Jo Joyner, Ackley Bridge) and Frank Hathaway (Mark Benton, Anna and the Apocalypse) after a case brings them together and leads to them joining forces.
Joyner and Benton will reprise their roles in the new series, alongside Patrick Walshe McBride (Dracula), who plays aspiring actor and perpetual understudy Sebastian Brudenell.
Blue Planet UK, presented by Springwatch’s Gillian Burke and Countryfile’s Steve Brown with Chris Packham, deals with British marine life and makes its debut on BBC One in March.
It will be made by BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit and provide a “health check of our seas”.
In common with Blue Planet II it highlights plastic pollution. The series will offer “practical solutions for how to get involved across the country and tackle plastic pollution”.
Daytime TV has long been the butt of comedians’ jokes. In an episode of Mock the Week last year, Hugh Dennis pretended to be a weary daytime announcer: “Well, because they’re all the same, and I can’t be bothered to announce them all, here’s Flog Dickinson’s Antiques Sun Hammer Pointless Breakout in the Country… finishes at 5pm.”
How do you go about creating a new TV drama for a worldwide audience? “It has to have something recognisable globally; it has to show good old England – you need to harness a global brand,” reckoned Jude Tindall.
The writer and producer Ella Kelly were sharing their secrets with students at an RTS Midlands masterclass at the University of Wolverhampton in mid-February.
