BBC One Orders Drama ‘The Split’ From Abi Morgan; Thandie Newton Joins ‘Line Of Duty’ Season 4 – Edinburgh
BBC One has had a strong year, achieving its best peak time share since 2008, and fueled by such series as Call The Midwife, Poldark, Doctor Foster, The A Word, Luther and the Sherlock special. At the Edinburgh TV Festival today, BBC Director of Content Charlotte Moore unveiled a slate of six new series including divorce-lawyer drama The Split from Emmy-winner Abi Morgan and exec produced by Broadchurch‘s Jane Featherstone. Moore also revealed that Thandie Newton has been set to star as the guest lead in Season 4 of Jed Mercurio’s Line Of Duty.
Speaking at the fest, Moore credited risk-taking and innovation for BBC One’s recent success. She also promised the flagship network will “continue to challenge what mainstream television means and connect with an increasingly diverse UK.”
Details on the new commissions are below:
LINE OF DUTY: The police procedural moves to BBC One next year from BBC Two for Season 4. Newton will play Detective Chief Inspector Roz Huntley as she and her team are in the thick of a career defining case. World Productions produces for BBC One.
THE SPLIT: From writer Abi Morgan (Suffragette, The Hour) and executive producer Jane Featherstone (Broadchurch, Humans), the London-set drama examines the fast-paced circuit of high-powered female divorce lawyers through the lens of three sisters. Fittingly, Featherstone’s Sister Pictures produces.
NOUGHTS AND CROSSES: An adaptation of the YA novel by Malorie Blackman. The story of first love set in a dangerous, adrenalized dystopia is to be adapted by Levi David Addai with Matthew Graham. Mammoth Screen is producing.
BODYGUARD: A six-part drama from the folks behind Line Of Duty. Mercurio and World Productions’ contemporary thriller tells a fictional story following a team from the Royalty and Specialist Protection Branch of London’s Metropolitan Police Service whose officers are tasked with protecting royals, politicians and diplomats.
TRUST ME: A Scottish drama from RED Production Company and written by Dan Sefton. It follows a hardworking and skilled Edinburgh nurse, who, having lost her job for whistle-blowing, is forced to take drastic measures to provide for her daughter.
SERENGETI: A six-part series that uses narrative techniques of long-running drama serials, where multiple storylines are woven together, to tell the real life stories of some of the most charismatic animals in Africa. Made by Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment and John Downer Productions.
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