BBC Director-General Tim Davie announced the new shows as part of a special event held at the Royal Institution which showcased the BBC’s commitment to science.
New TV commissions announced for BBC iPlayer and BBC Two include a three-part series presented by Professor Hannah Fry, AI Confidential, exploring the front line of the AI revolution; a new film from comedian and Strictly champion Chris McCausland, Seeing into the Future, investigating the future of technology and what it might hold for him personally; and a Horizon special, Confessions of a Brain Surgeon, with Henry Marsh, one of Britain’s top brain surgeons. On BBC Three and iPlayer is Confessions of a Steroid Gang, that tells a cautionary tale of illegal steroid production and the dark side of self-improvement. BBC Children’s and Education also confirmed that Horrible Science has been commissioned for a second series for CBBC and BBC iPlayer and for CBeebies there are shows to inspire learning about plants and imaginative play with nature, including What’s in Your Plant Pot and I Can Grow It. This follows the recent launch of Operation Ouch series 13, and series 3 of Get Set Galactic.
Tim Davie said: “The BBC serves as a unique destination for distinctive, high-quality science news and programming. It’s key to the value we provide audiences and fundamental to our role in telling the stories that are shaping our world and beyond – particularly in such polarised times awash with misinformation. As the home to the very best science storytellers and broadcasters, we’re making exciting and innovative programming right across the BBC that won’t be found anywhere else. We have an incredible range of shows to look forward to, so I want to take this moment to celebrate the contribution the BBC makes to UK science and reaffirm our commitment to it remaining at the heart of our offer for many years to come.”
New commissions:
AI Confidential with Hannah Fry (w/t)
Professor Hannah Fry investigates extraordinary tales from the front lines of the AI revolution in this brand new 3 x 60 series for BBC iPlayer and BBC Two.
Artificial intelligence has already begun transforming our lives at break-neck speed – and it’s caused some incredible and sometimes shocking true-life stories as a result. Broadcaster and mathematician Prof Hannah Fry is going to meet the people whose lives have been impacted by this technology in huge ways – from falling in love with an AI chatbot, to life and death decisions made by robots, to the people whose lives have been upended by Silicon Valley corporations.
Taking a deep-dive into some of the most extraordinary human stories emerging from the world of AI, meeting key individuals whose lives have been transformed by this new technology for better or for worse, and investigating everything from ‘grief tech’ to driverless cars, this hugely entertaining and deeply enlightening new series will see Hannah grapple with some of the most important questions of our time, through some of the most thrilling untold stories of recent years.
AI Confidential has been commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual and the BBC Commissioning Editor is Tom Coveney. The Series Director is Harriet Bird, who previously made Hannah’s Grierson award-winning documentary, Making Sense of Cancer’, and the Series Producer is Vikki Miller. It is Executive Produced by Charlie Russell and Dov Freedman for Curious Films. It is co-produced by The Open University.
Chris McCausland: Seeing into the Future
Comedian and reigning Strictly Champion Chris McCausland is on a mission to discover the future of technology, and what it might hold for him personally, in a new 1 x 60 documentary for BBC Two and iPlayer.
He can crack jokes, he can dance, he has hosted his own TV shows … but his real passion is technology. Chris has a condition called retinitis pigmentosa which led him to gradually lose his sight from birth. By his early twenties, he was blind. It is this that has led Chris to his unique relationship with technology. Whereas for sighted people, innovations such as the iPhone and voice interactive smart assistants are nice things to have, for Chris, they have been life changing.
Chris is a tech junkie. He studied software engineering at university and can’t wait to get his hands on the next generation of mind-blowing devices. From robots and driverless cars to AI and the future of smart glasses, he’s champing at the bit to find out what the future holds. In this personal and funny documentary, Chris will be travelling the UK and heading over to Silicon Valley to explore how cutting-edge technology could transform his life yet again.
Chris says: “I’ve always been a tech nerd, and now I can’t wait to finally get to count this indulgence as work. I’m going to love trying out the latest gadgets and gismos before anybody else can. I’m also going to try and make friends with some robots, because it probably won’t be long until they’re in charge of us all.”
Chris McCausland: Seeing into the Future (1×60) was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual and the BBC Commissioning Editor is Tom Coveney. It is being made by Open Mike Productions where the Executive Producers are Andrew Beint, Andrew Thistlewood and Rory Wheeler. The film is co-produced by The Open University.
Horizon: Confessions of a Brain Surgeon
A new 1 x 60 Horizon special for BBC Two and iPlayer in which one of the UK’s most pioneering surgeons talks candidly about some of his most difficult cases.
Henry Marsh was one of Britain’s top brain surgeons, operating on thousands of patients over a 40-year career. After retiring, Henry received his own life-threatening diagnosis – advanced prostate cancer. This shift from doctor to patient has given Henry a new perspective on life and death, and also his ground-breaking career. Now, as he awaits his own medical results, Henry is facing his past, to learn lessons that he can pass on to the next generation of surgeons. As he grapples with the cases of patients who died in his care, a chance encounter leads to a meeting with a family who have blamed Henry for the death of their son for almost three decades. He also explores the impact his work had on those closest to him, revealing the huge emotional and personal challenges of a job where every day came with life and death decisions.
Having pioneered a controversial technique to remove tumours from patients’ brains whilst they were still awake, Henry admits how easy it was to become arrogant as a brain surgeon. Looking back, he can see there were times when he thought he was a surgical ‘superhero’ but now stresses the importance of recognising and sharing your own mistakes.
Featuring unseen personal archive from throughout Henry’s life and career, this film also sees Henry travelling the world to talk to trainee surgeons, who he hopes to help by being honest about his own experiences.
Horizon: Confessions of a Brain Surgeon (1×60) was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual and the BBC Commissioning Editor is Tom Coveney. It is being made by Curious Films where the Executive Producer Dov Freedman and the Co-Directors are Harriet Bird and Charlie Russell.
Confessions of a Steroid Gang
Confessions of a Steroid Gang tells the cautionary tale of how a father and son from a small town in North Wales built one of the UK’s biggest underground steroid empires – shipping illegal muscle-building drugs to gym-goers across the globe – before being apprehended by the police.
The series explores how the two men were drawn into a world of performance-enhancing drugs and how they began producing, marketing and distributing illegal steroids around the UK. What began as a small-time scheme in a garden shed morphs into a lucrative operation involving Chinese imports, a home lab, fake websites and shady distribution networks. However, as their empire peaks, cracks begin to show and the police, following leads from seized parcels and suspicious transactions, close in.
Including testimony from steroid users, experts and those affected by the culture, the series shows how image-obsessed social media, testosterone supplements and a booming black market collided and highlights the health risks of unregulated steroid use and addiction. With exclusive testimony from those inside the gang and those who brought it down, the series explores issues of identity, masculinity, and the dark side of self-improvement.
Confessions of a Steroid Gang a 3 x 30 min for BBC Three, BBC One Wales and iPlayer, was commissioned by Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual, Nasfim Haque, Head of Content, BBC Three and Nick Andrews, Head of Commissioning, BBC Cymru Wales. It is being made by Double Act where it is being Executive Produced by Larry Walford and Series Directed by Rory Jackson. The BBC Commissioning Editor is Denise Mather.
Horrible Science series 2
Laugh-out-loud comedy sketch series and educational resource Horrible Science, brought to you by the award-winning team behind Horrible Histories, will return for series 2. Created with the unique ‘Horrible’ DNA of gruesome comedy combined with mind-bending scientific facts, silly songs and hilarious parodies, Horrible Science will continue to explore the awesome and gruesome science of the past, present and future. Similar to series one, there will be episodes linked to the KS2 National Curriculum, exploring topics such as the human body and living world, alongside a space special episode and delving into the world of AI.
Horrible Science will be made by Lion Television, part of All3Media, the team behind the beloved, multi award-winning Horrible Histories TV show, which has celebrated its 15th anniversary. The second series is commissioned by Patricia Hidalgo, Director of BBC Children’s and Education and Sarah Muller, Senior Head of Commissioning 7+ with Melissa Hardinge, Senior Commissioning Editor. Horrible Science is inspired by the bestselling and award-winning Horrible Science book series written by Nick Arnold, illustrated by Tony De Saulles, and published by Scholastic, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026.
Jon Creamer
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