BBC One and BBC Two announced two major projects each today. BBC One revealed it is developing World War II drama World on Fire and drama series The Trial of Christine Keeler, while BBC Two is developing drama series Trigonometry and an adaptation of The North Water.
World on Fire is a new landmark drama series by Peter Bowker, multi-award winning writer of BBC shows The A Word, Marvellous, Capital, Eric and Ernie and Occupation. World on Fire is a heart-stopping, multi-stranded drama telling the story of World War II through the lives of ordinary people from all sides of this global conflict. The first series of seven episodes tells the story of the first year of the war, starting with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and ending with the Battle of Britain. The drama will be produced by Mammoth Screen (Poldark, And Then There Were None, Parade’s End for the BBC).
Filming will commence next year in locations in the UK and across Europe. World on Fire is a 7×60’ series produced by Mammoth Screen for BBC One. It is written by Peter Bowker, developed by Mammoth’s Creative Director Rebecca Keane and executive produced by Peter Bowker, Damien Timmer, Marcus Wilson and Helen Ziegler for Mammoth Screen and Lucy Richer for the BBC.
The Trial of Christine Keeler is a six part drama commission from multi-award winning production company Ecosse Films. Written by award-winning novelist and screenwriter Amanda Coe (Apple Tree Yard, Room at the Top), the compelling drama takes a fresh look at one of the most infamous British stories: the chain of events in the 1960s which came to be known as the Profumo affair. The Trial of Christine Keeler takes us behind the headlines to tell a human story about the sexual and cultural politics of one of the most revealing and iconic stories of modern times. At the centre of the storm was 19-year-old Christine Keeler – a young woman whom the powerful, male-dominated establishment sought to silence and exploit, but who refused to play by their rules.
The Trial of Christine Keeler is an Ecosse Films drama for BBC One. The executive producers are Kate Triggs and Douglas Rae for Ecosse Films, Amanda Coe and Lucy Richer for BBC. Filming begins in the UK in 2018.
Commissioned by Piers Wenger, Controller of Drama, and Patrick Holland, Controller of BBC Two, and produced by House Productions, Trigonometry is a new 8×30’ series written by Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods. A love story. About three people who are made for each other. In crowded, expensive London, a cash-strapped couple open their small apartment to a third person. Somehow, the new addition makes the flat seem bigger, not smaller. Gradually, many things become easier, nicer, better with an extra pair of hands.
Funny and full of sexual tension, Trigonometry has emotional and psychological truthfulness at its heart. This is a world of consequences, in which the characters have everything to lose. As this unusual relationship becomes unavoidable, the trio approach it with the prudence of people in their 30s, and overthink it in a way only this generation can. But even when common sense, friends and family is telling them that this relationship is doomed, they simply cannot be apart.
Executive Producers are Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell for House Productions, and Tommy Bulfin for the BBC.
Award-winning writer and director Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete, 45 Years, Weekend) will adapt and direct The North Water, based on the critically-acclaimed novel from Ian McGuire, and produced by See-Saw Films for BBC Two.
Set in Hull and the ice floes of the Arctic in the late 1850s, The North Water tells the story of Patrick Sumner, a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as ship’s doctor on a whaling expedition to the Arctic. On board he meets Henry Drax, the harpooner, a brutish killer whose amorality has been shaped to fit the harshness of his world. Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, Sumner finds himself on an ill-fated journey with a murderous psychopath. In search of redemption, his story becomes a harsh struggle for survival in the Arctic wasteland.
This gripping and original story of murder, mystery and survival has topped critic’s lists around the world and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.
The North Water, a 5×60’ series, has been commissioned by Piers Wenger, Controller of BBC Drama, and Patrick Holland, Controller of BBC Two. It will be executive produced by Jamie Laurenson and Hakan Kousetta, alongside Iain Canning and Emile Sherman for See-Saw Films, and Lucy Richer for the BBC. Filming will begin in Summer 2018.
