TOP DRAMA FOR NEW BBC CHANNEL
THE fifth season of Downton Abbey and an acclaimed film based on the Roald Dahl children’s novel, Esio Trot, starring Dustin Hoffman and Judi Dench, are among shows headed for a new drama-focused channel, BBC First, launching on Sunday on DStv’s channel 119.
Top-rated British drama series such as Wolf Hall and Peaky Blinders are also headed for the new channel, which follows the introduction of BBC Brit (channel 120) and BBC Earth (channel 184) last month.
The debut of BBC First makes South Africa the first country in the world to launch all three of BBC Worldwide’s new global genre brands.
BBC First will be available exclusively to DStv Premium customers in South Africa and will air from 6pm to 1am daily.
Esio Trot, described as a “warm, witty and whimsical” film adaptation of Dahl’s delightful children’s novel, is a 90-minute film by Richard Curtis, whose writing credits include Mr Bean, Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley.
Scheduled for 6pm on Sunday, Esio Trot tells of a retired bachelor, Mr Hoppy, who is hopelessly in love with his neighbour, Mrs Silver. However, she is only interested in her pet tortoise, Alfie… until Mr Hoppy hatches an audacious plan to win her love.
Downton Abbey’s fifth season also starts on Sunday, at 7.30pm. The nine-part series, which includes a 90-minute special, covers the months from February to December 1924. This season continues some of the storylines established in series four, including Mary Crawley’s relationship with Anthony Foyle and Charles Blake, Tom Branson’s flirtation with Sarah Bunting and Edith Crawley’s pregnancy.
The season also explores the aftermath of Rose MacClare’s broken engagement with Jack Ross.
Richard E Grant, Anna Chancellor and Rade Sherbedgia join the cast, respectively playing Simon Bricker, the Dowager Lady Anstruther, and a Russian refugee named Kuragin.
Shirley MacLaine and Paul Giamatti won’t be reprising their respective roles as Martha and Harold Levinson, but reportedly may return in a future season.
The six-episode Wolf Hall, scheduled to premiere at 8pm on Wednesday, October 21, is a historical mini-series based on Hilary Mantel’s Man Booker Prize-winning novels. They are centred on the rise of Thomas Cromwell in Henry VIII’s Tudor court. The series stars Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis ( Homeland).
Also headed for BBC First is the ninth season of Doctor Who, featuring time-travelling heroics of the good doctor. The 12-part series is scheduled to start at 6pm on Saturday, October 24.
Also watch for a sun-drenched murder-mystery series called Death in Paradise, an eight-parter starting at 8pm on Friday, October 23.
Initially starring Ben Miller and Sara Martins, and later starring Kris Marshall and Joséphine Jobert, this series is about criminal investigations on the Caribbean paradise island of Saint-Marie.
Among highlights in store for the new channel in coming months are the World War I-era gangster drama, Peaky Blinders (starring Cillian Murphy); Cold War spy thriller The Game; popular detective series DCI Banks; and the new psychological thriller Fortitude, set in a close-knit community in the icy Arctic.
Also keep an eye out for the film Burton and Taylor, centred on the twilight years of this A-list couple’s volatile relationship.
It teams Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth Taylor and Dominic West as Richard Burton.
A new detective series, Father Brown, starring Mark Williams as a Roman Catholic priest with a penchant for solving crimes in the pastoral English countryside, is also headed for BBC First. It is based on the stories of G K Chesterton.
Another forthcoming treat is the first season of Happy Valley, a much-anticipated police drama series set in a small town. It is about a police sergeant who comes face-to-face with the man who destroyed her family.
BBC First will also be home to the soap opera, EastEnders (celebrating its 30th year of chronicling the ups and downs of the inhabitants of London’s East End), which will be shown at 6pm Mondays to Thursdays; and Casualty, which will be shown at 6pm on Fridays.