BBC Unveils New Commissions, Structure for Arts & Music Offer

The BBC has announced new TV commissions as it reshapes its arts and music content teams to drive bigger reach and impact in the U.K.

Highlights of the new commissions include a landmark docuseries about the history of British creativity through iconic artworks and artifacts that will feature leading U.K. artists. Mary Beard will return with a documentary exploration of the forbidden in art for BBC Two. There will also be one-offs delving into vital works of art and challenging cultural issues, including one with David Harewood on blackface minstrelsy for BBC Two.

The BBC will double its investment in arts and music on BBC Two over the next two years and commit to up to eight major arts and music box-set series for BBC iPlayer each year. BBC Four will become the home of arts and music performance, bringing together collections of distinctive content from the BBC’s archive. The BBC will also open up its entire BBC Local Radio network to local arts organizations.

New opera productions for TV have been confirmed for BBC Four as BBC Lights Up gets underway. Profiles and biographies covering Daniel Barenboim, Sir Quentin Blake, Brian Catling, Jackie Collins, Delia Derbyshire, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, Kae Tempest and Andy Warhol, and new commissions to mark key anniversaries for T.S. Eliot and James Joyce are in the works for BBC Two

Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore said: “The BBC has always prided itself on having a world-class arts and music offer. The BBC wants to build on that to expand the reach of arts and music programming and deliver even more unique, high-impact content for the public. Alongside that, we want to be Britain’s creative partner and platform for talent. I am excited about the content we have commissioned and how our new approach will help that reach more people.”

A new structure will see arts and classical music TV commissioning fully integrated into BBC Content under the leadership of Patrick Holland. As the director of a new factual, arts and classical music genre, Holland will take on an expanded remit. Further, two new leadership roles have been created: a new head of arts and classical music and a dedicated TV commissioner responsible for the BBC Proms and classical music on TV.

The TV and Radio commissioning teams will collaborate as part of the BBC Content division. Alan Davey will continue his leadership role in classical music, including the commissioning of new music, as controller of Radio 3, the BBC’s Orchestras and Choirs and the BBC Proms. He will work closely with Holand and his team to ensure that classical music increases its impact for audiences using all the resources available to the BBC.

Lorna Clarke, controller of pop music, will continue to oversee the genre, with responsibility for pop music stations Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 1Xtra, The Asian Network and Radio 6 Music, as well as TV commissioning. Clarke’s current music TV commissioning team will evolve so that it will solely focus on pop music. The team will include a commissioning editor, a commissioning executive and an assistant commissioner.

Moore added: “This simpler, more authentic system will create greater collaboration across the genres to deliver the most creative arts and music content for audiences, whether they want to watch or listen to them live or on-demand. This new approach is the right one for the BBC, but more importantly, it is the right one for audiences.”