BBC TV ups viewing game
New shows will enhance and channel the experience
TWICE a year, BBC Studios hosts its “Upfront” events – one for winter, one for summer. This is the opportunity to get a preview of what’s coming up on BBC channels for the next six months.
Let’s begin with BBC Lifestyle, because they are very excited about a “vibrant and playful new look” which will be visible on air tomorrow. I’ve witnessed a large number of these re-brandings over the years, on many channels, and remain largely unimpressed. For me, it’s always about the content. Luckily, Lifestyle – and the rest of the group – delivers.
Where To I Do? begins on Sunday at 9pm, in which host, property and design expert Tommy Smythe takes engaged couple through the process of finding the wedding venue of their dreams. Buyers Bootcamp begins on October 26 at 9pm, with Canadian contractor and real estate aficionado Scott McGillivray, who puts his money where amateur investors’ houses are as he partners with firsttime house flippers.
Next month you can watch season two of Bake Off: Crème de la Crème (November 5, 8pm); and Give It A Year (November 20, 8pm), a series in which Baroness Karren Brady meets the brave people who decide to go it alone and start a new business.
In December, we’ll be getting Farmer Wants A Wife Australia. It’s the ninth season of this popular show, which begins on December 2 at 8pm.
24 Hours To Hell And Back is Gordon Ramsay’s title, while Jamie Oliver presents a second season of Quick And Easy Food, the one where he uses five ingredients. Also back for new seasons are Grand Designs (season 15), George Clarke’s Amazing Spaces (season eight), and Married At First Sight (season four).
BBC First will continue to bring viewers the best of British drama. Tin Star, starring Tim Roth and Christina Hendricks, began on Wednesday at 8pm, is a revenge-driven thriller of corruption of innocence, murder and grief; season three of the Bafta award-winning hit Unforgotten began last Sunday (9pm), in which Cassie (Nicola Walker) and Sunny (Sanjeev Bhaskar) investigate another emotionally charged cold case.
In December comes The Cry (December 2, 9pm), starring Jenna Coleman, which follows a young couple whose baby is abducted during a trip to Melbourne, Australia.
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in Brexit, from Olivier Awardwinning writer James Graham,a political thriller which explores the campaign behind one of the most contested, controversial government referendums in modern history.
In the new year we’ll see Dominic West starring in Les Miserables, and Richard Gere in MotherFatherSon,a thrilling drama series from bestselling author and Emmy-nominated writer Tom Rob Smith.
New seasons of Luther, Father Brown, Silent Witness, Shakespeare and Hathaway, Call The Midwife, and Peaky Blinders are also on the line up for 2019.
And then there is BBC Earth, where Sir David Attenborough reigns supreme. Four years in the making, Dynasties is the latest offering from the BBC’s multi-award winning and acclaimed Natural History Unit, featuring Sir David’s mellifluous voice.
The preview clip showed incredible cinematography – we would expect nothing less – as viewers are invited to watch the dynastic power struggles and family treachery more dramatic than any work of fiction. We’ll follow chimps, emperor penguins, lions, painted wolves, and tigers as they show their determination to dominate their landscape and do whatever it takes to see off vicious challenges to their leadership and dynastic line – often from close family members.
On BBC Brit we already have the latest season of Strictly Come Dancing (Sundays at 6pm) and The Graham Norton Show (Tuesdays at 9pm). Coming up next year, new and exclusively from the US, is the game show Child Support hosted by Fred Savage. It features adult contestants, and interactions between Ricky Gervais and a group of five children between the ages of 6 and 9. For Facts Sake is another upcoming game show, hosted by Brendan O’Carroll. Documentary makers Louis Theroux and Stacey Dooley will bring us more thoughtprovoking topics, from monogamy vs polyamorous relationships, the rise of private adoption in the US, and a look at the debate surrounding the right to decide when you die.