BBC4 channel editor Cassian Harrison announced four new titles for the channel at the Edinburgh TV Festival.
The Dead Room is a chilling new ghost story written and directed by Mark Gatiss featuring Simon Callow, Anjli Mohindra, Susan Penhaligon and Joshua Oakes-Rogers. Set and fllmed at BBC Maida Vale Studios, The Dead Room tells the story of a long-running radio horror series and its veteran presenter and national treasure Aubrey Judd. But times are changing. Tastes are shifting. There’s a new young producer. Whatever happened to the classic ghost stories? The good old days? Aubrey soon discovers that all is not quiet in the eerie radio studio and that elements of his own past are not as dead and buried as he perhaps hoped.
The Dead Room is a 1×30’ drama written and directed by Mark Gatiss. The Executive Producer is Ben Irving for BBC Four and Isibeal Ballance is the Producer for Can Do Productions.
Also announced was The Yorkshire Ripper, a box-set history series which returns to the case of Peter Sutcliffe, who was convicted of murdering thirteen women. Filmmaker Liza Williams will re-investigate the case and re-examine it with contemporary eyes to question whether attitudes of the time, towards women and prostitutes in particular, influenced the investigation and meant that Peter Sutcliffe was caught years too late.
The Series Director is Liza Williams. The Executive Producers for Wall to Wall Media are Leanne Klein and Nancy Bornat. Wall to Wall Media is a Warner Bros International Television Production Company. The series was commissioned by Cassian Harrison, Controller BBC Four and Tom McDonald, BBC Head of Commissioning, Natural History and Specialist Factual. The Commissioning Editor is Abigail Priddle.
You, Me and Eugenics (w/t) is jointly presented by author and science journalist Angela Saini and reporter and disability campaigner, Adam Pearson. The series explores the history and modern versions of eugenics, the attempt to manipulate our genetic inheritance, to change human evolution and to breed a “better” human.
You Me and Eugenics is a Furnace production for BBC Four. The Executive Producer is Paul Sen. It was commissioned by Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor, BBC Four, and Tom McDonald, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual. The BBC commissioning editor is Tom Coveney.
Additionally, BBC Four has acquired The Plague, a six-part period thriller which follows former heretic, Mateo, on his return to Seville, one of the richest cities in the World and the doorway to Europe for gold rich migrants from the New World, as the Black Death descends on the city.
The Plague was acquired for BBC Four from Sky Vision, who co-funded the series and distribute it internationally. The Plague is a 6×50’ Movistar+ original series production and has been executive produced by Antipica Films. The series has been directed by Alberto Rodgríguez and written by Rafael Cobos and Fran Araújo. The Plague is based on an original idea from Alberto Rodgríguez and Rafael Cobos.
Cassian Harrison, Channel Editor, said: "I’m immensely proud of how BBC Four continues to stand as a truly unique offer in UK broadcasting, and of the ongoing support of our audiences, with the channel showing some of its best figures ever this year. This selection of upcoming titles gives a glimpse of the diversity of programming we have coming down the line, with bold new narrative forms, hard-hitting journalism, the best of international drama and eclectic partnerships with some of the UK’s biggest creative talents."
Staff Reporter
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