Channel is not afraid to upset, says controller

BBC TWO will “provoke” and “upset people” with a season of challenging programmes, its controller has promised, as he admits he was shocked to learn of its reputation as “stuffy, comfortable and complacent”.

Patrick Holland, who launched the new BBC Two season last night, said he wanted to bring the “unorthodox DNA back to the centre of the channel” in a world

‘BBC Two was a challenger brand long before the term even existed’

of stiff competition from streaming services.

Describing the channel as “the first TV outsider, the first to question the mainstream”, he argued that a new selection of “challenging” shows would serve to make it “essential in the modern broadcast landscape”, which includes Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Among the new commissions are an exploration of Africa in a wheelchair, a documentary on the Assads, a look at Russian football hooliganism, an insight into actor David Harewood’s experience of psychosis, an exploration of the Jewish faith, and a series detailing a murder investigation.

Dramas include a story of slavery in modern Britain, an adaptation of Eugene Mccabe’s modern Irish classic Death and Nightingales, and Englistan, Riz Ahmed’s tale of three generations of a British-pakistani family spanning four decades.

Mr Holland said: “It always surprised me, even before I joined the BBC, that anyone might consider BBC Two stuffy, comfortable or complacent.

“It was established in the Sixties with a mandate to do things differently, to think differently, to hear from different voices. It was a challenger brand long before the term even existed.”

Saying he was “determined to pull the schedule away from London and the South East”, Mr Holland said BBC Two would never be “afraid of provoking, knowing we may upset people along the way”.

“TV may have gone through revolutionary change over the 50 years since BBC Two was born,” he said. “But we are still outside the tent. We are still challenging the status quo.”