The BBC has commissioned two new drama series for BBC iPlayer and Daytime from the West Midlands.
The Hairdresser Mysteries (6×45) is written by Jim Cartwright and produced by Mill Bay Media, a 53 Degrees Global company, in association with Night Train Media. The Detection Club (10×45) is from lead writer Kit Lambert, produced by BBC Studios Drama Productions.
The commissions are part of the BBC’s commitment to re-investing all of the Doctors spend into new scripted programming in the West Midlands.
BBC Studios Drama Productions, who produce titles including Father Brown, Silent Witness and Shakespeare and Hathaway have also recently opened Portland House, a regional hub and post-production facility in Digbeth where the Detection Club will be produced.
The Hairdresser Mysteries is an original, homegrown drama created by Jim Cartwright (Road, Road, Johnny Shakespeare, Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise and King of the Teds), and is a nostalgic nod to the 70s which sees a high-end hairdresser, Lily Petal, opt out of the competitive city scene to buy a small village hairdressers at the top of a cobbled street. Everyone tells their hairdresser everything and soon she is at the hub of her new village’s secrets and revelations, and with her own brand of uncannily highly developed, hairdressing intuitive empathy and understanding, solves the village mysteries.
Filming for The Hairdresser Mysteries will begin this September across the West Midlands and will see Sally Phillips take the lead-role of Lily Petal. Will Trotter (Father Brown, Sister Boniface Mysteries) and Oliver Kent (Sanditon, The Burning Girls,) act as executive producers for Mill Bay Media, with Herbert L. Kloiber (The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Fallen) and James Copp (Catch Me A Killer, This Time Next Year) for Night Train Media. Jim Cartwright, Mark Catley and David Semple serve as writers on the series with Paul Gibson, Jermain Julien and Tracey Larcombe directing. Grainne O’Boyle (Doctors) will produce. Eccho Rights are distributing internationally.
The Detection Club, set in 1930s London, sees the mysterious society of the three most famous crime writers of our time Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers and G.K. Chesterton, join forces to solve real-life murders. Honing their craft within the hallowed walls of a secret London location, the three writers come together after receiving an invitation that leads them to their first real murder case. The series follows the trio as they work together to crack cases, all to the despair of D.I. Greenway a young, rookie, real-life detective. The Detection Club, which will be filmed in 2026, is backed by BBC Studios, who are handling global sales.
Helen Munson, Commissioning Editor for BBC Daytime comments, “The BBC made a commitment to reinvest in new programming from the West Midlands, and these two new dramas are a result of this. The West Midlands has so much home-grown talent in the drama sector both on and off screen, commissioning the Detection Club and The Hairdresser Mysteries will offer more jobs to the region and showcase what the area has to offer. I’m excited to be working on these mysterious crime dramas which will be enjoyed by all ages of audiences at any time of the day.”
BBC primetime programming such as Silent Witness and MasterChef have gone into pre-production from new bases in Digbeth. BBC Radio 1Xtra has relocated shows and BBC Asian Network has begun consolidating the network entirely in the city since April 2025.
Staff Reporter
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