On Sunday 8 March Radio 3 will mark International Women's Day with programmes entirely dedicated to music written and chosen by women. The programmes will champion the talents and creativity of women who have written music throughout the centuries.

The day will include special editions of Breakfast, Sunday Morning, the Early Music Show and The Choir, all featuring works written by women composers. A special lunchtime concert live from the BBC's Radio Theatre in Broadcasting House will feature performances from some of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. Katie Derham will present a live concert performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in an all-female programme.

In the lead-up to the day, Radio 3 will also broadcast programmes editions of CD Review, Essential Classics all featuring works by women composers. In Music Matters on Saturday 7 March, Radio 3 presenter Sara Mohr Pietsch examines how the world has changed for women writing music across the centuries, and why there are still fewer published women composers than men.

Additionally, special editions of The Essay will spotlight Women who have influenced musical life throughout history (Monday 2 March – Friday 6 March).

Each day in the week following International Women’s Day, Composer of the Week host Donald MacLeod will interview five female composers under the age of 35 - Charlotte Bray, Anna Clyne, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Hannah Kendall and Dobrinka Tabakova discussing life as a female composer today (Monday 9 March – Friday 13 March).

Edwina Wolstencroft from Radio 3 has curated the series of programmes for International Women's Day commented on the day, "There are six thousand women composers in history so why can most of us only name a handful? We as a station can’t solve the imbalances of the classical music industry - which inevitably reflect historic societal attitudes to women generally - but it's very important to take the time to explore the issues."

• For details, performers and composers featured in the celebration for International Womens Day, take a look at the Media Centre press release which lists broadcast times in full. 

BBC Two have announced seven new documentaries, including Piper Alpha, marking 25 years since one of the world's worst offshore oil disasters; and a reinvention of the iconic documentary series Modern Times for the 21st century. There’s drama news from the network too, as Vanessa Redgrave and Olivia Coleman are confirmed for the adaptation of Diane Setterfield’s best-selling novel The Thirteenth Tale, directed by James Kent (the man behind The White Queen).

Alan Yentob will return to BBC One with another six-part series of Imagine this month, I’m particularly looking forward to the two-part portrait of one of my favourite filmmakers, Woody Allen.

Also on BBC One, a new show coming to Saturdays looks intriguing. Called The Puppet Game Show it’s a joint effort from BBC In-House Entertainment and The Jim Henson Company and promises to feature two “top-name celebrities” each week. BBC Two will also be good for a laugh as the PG Wodehouse comedy,  Blandings, starring Timothy Spall and Jennifer Saunders will be back for a second series.

BBC Radio has made announcements to please those who can’t get to some of this summer’s music festivals:  BBC Radio 3 will be at the WOMAD festival and broadcasting every act, and BBC Introducing will be at T in the Park in Kinross-shire giving 10 local Scottish artists, as well as other from across the UK, the chance to perform.

Those who are going to a festival can benefit from the newly launched BBC Weather app - especially useful planning around the great but often unpredictable British summer that’s upon us.

And on CBBC,  the final 10 hopefuls who will compete to become a Blue Peter presenter have been announced, these will be whittled down to three finalists by judges of a special CBBC series: Blue Peter You Decide! Viewers can then cast their vote for the ultimate winner.

Hannah Khalil is Digital Content Producer, About the BBC Website and Blog.

 

First up, we’ve announced 'our most digital Glastonbury coverage ever', with over 120 live performances available via TV, radio, red button and online. So whether you’re curled up on the sofa at home, stuck in a traffic jam, or on a much-needed lunch break, your favourite acts are just the prod of a touch-screen away. For those of a more orchestral disposition, BBC Scotland is hosting Alive With Music in late June, a range of free concerts, events and broadcasts including live performances by the BBC Big Band and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Events are free but ticketed, so get in early.

From big bands to big days out, with our announcement of this year’s tour schedule and ticket info for Mr Bloom & Friends’ Big Day Out, in which CBeebies’ resident gardener and his gang of Veggies visit towns and cities across the UK, joined by Rastamouse and other CBeebies presenters.

Finally, if you’re looking to get your grey-matter working overtime, we’ve announced that Radio 3’s annual Free Thinking Festival of ideas is to hit the road again in June and September, taking up residency at leading summer events across the country. So whether it’s philosophy, music, history, politics or a good old debate you’re after, there’s something for everyone.

We’ve also had some major announcements on the programming side this week. After becoming BBC Two’s most successful drama series launch since 2005, the gripping Gillian Anderson thriller The Fall has been recommissioned for a second series. And following a popular three-part serial version earlier this year, Dominic Mitchell’s zombie drama In The Flesh is also returning for a second run.

Also this week, we’ve released the media pack for BBC One’s major new historical drama The White Queen (pictured), including video cast interviews and production facts. Set amid the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, it’s the story of the women caught up in the ongoing conflict for the throne, taking viewers from the feverish, behind-the-scenes intrigue at court to the heat of the battle-field.

To another kind of heat entirely, BBC Two has announced The Incredible Spice Men: Todiwala And Singh, one of two exciting new food commissions for the summer. And on a slightly cooler note, BBC Two has also announced Operation Snow Tiger, a new two-part documentary in which Liz Bonnin and a team of big-cat experts track elusive Siberian tigers through the Russian Far East. This is exciting for a number of reasons – not least because it’s the first time the BBC Natural History Unit has filmed these animals in the wild. Expect claws, whiskers and breath-taking feline footage.

On the radio side, Radio 4 has announced a new season of dramas inspired by the late JG Ballard. Dangerous Visions promises to explore that dark, satirical genre, the dystopian future – and includes a complementary new production of Golding’s Lord Of The Flies on Radio 4 Extra.

Speaking of lords, it’s finally time up for resident Time Lord Matt Smith (pictured), who we announced this week will be leaving Doctor Who at the end of the year. Over an amazing four years, Matt has been the Doctor to over 77 million fans in the UK, USA and Australia alone – and no doubt there will be global speculation about his spectacular exit show.

But if mum’s the word about the details of Matt’s departure, ‘mum’ is literally the word for this year’s 500 WORDS story-writing competition. Radio 2 has again partnered up with Oxford University Press to analyse the writing entries of some 90,000 children aged between nine and 13 years, and ‘mum’ was far and away the most popular word. We’ve also announced the winners of this year’s competition, where you’ll also find a link to this year’s amazing winning stories.

Matt Munday is Digital Content Producer, BBC Media Centre website.

Meanwhile, new BBC Two thriller The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson and Jamie Dornan, became the channel’s most successful drama series launch since 2005, with an average Monday night audience of 3.5 million.

And acclaimed BBC One drama Case Histories returned last night. We have some exclusive interviews with the cast, including Jason Isaacs and Victoria Wood, talking about their roles on the site here.

From drama to music, as BBC Four is set to explore the life and work of British folk legend Nic Jones in a new documentary. Jones released the acclaimed album Penguin Eggs in 1980 but his career was cut tragically short by a serious car accident. This new film tells the story of his long-awaited return to the stage in 2012.

BBC Four, alongside Radio 3, has also just announced details of the 2014 Young Musician of the Year. The competition, established in 1978, has gone from strength to strength and this year sees the introduction of a new Jazz Award and also an ambassadorial role for former winner, violinist Nicola Benedetti.

Radio 3, in partnership with the AHRC, has also just unveiled the ten academics that will be part of this year’s New Generation Thinkers scheme; they will spend a year working with the station to turn their research and ideas into broadcasts for the arts programme, Night Waves.

Finally, and again for BBC Four, we have just announced a new three-part series, Mothers, Murderers And Mistresses: Empresses Of Ancient Rome, which will tell the dramatic story of how exceptional women came to stand at the epicentre of imperial power.

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

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• You can read about last year's series of New Generation Thinkers here.

It made perfect sense when, the following day, Radio 2 announced the commission of a radio play to mark the 40th anniversary of the album. Called Dark Side and written by Sir Tom Stoppard, it will air on the August bank holiday, and is a fantastical, psychedelic story based on themes from the record and features a cast which includes Iwan Rheon, Amaka Okafor, Bill Nighy, Rufus Sewell, and Adrian Scarborough.

In fact, the album featured at number four in the station’s recent countdown of its listeners’ top 100, which was announced on Monday. Coldplay took the top spot and there was a wide selection of choices across the genres reflecting the breadth of the station’s output. The full list is available on the Radio 2 website, but here’s a few of my own favourites from it:

16. Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run

38. Prince – Purple Rain

45. Joni Mitchell – Blue

49. Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

51. Carole King – Tapestry 

Finally, sticking with the music theme, and going back to an announcement we made a few weeks back now, Thursday night saw a rare screening of the David Bowie documentary Cracked Actor as part of Alan Yentob’s Imagine strand. It’s a fascinating glimpse of the artist as a young man, touring America in the post-Ziggy era, and definitely worth a watch. It’s on the BBC iPlayer here. 

 

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

On the music front there have been two rather exciting announcements in the past seven days. Digital radio station, 6 Music, have confirmed their partnership with this year’s Latitude Festival, which includes the naming of the second stage as the BBC 6 Music Radio Stage; whilst BBC One’s Imagine strand has announced two music-related specials: the first, a portrait of Beyoncé that features unprecedented access and video diary footage; in the second, Alan Yentob revisits his acclaimed documentary, Cracked Actor, which follows David Bowie on the 1974 Diamond Dogs tour and reveals the icon at his most candid and fragile. The little-shown film is rightly regarded as a classic and this is great opportunity to see it in full.

It’s been a significant week for BBC iPlayer, which sees the commission of a new BBC Three drama strand that will feature exclusively on the on-demand platform – this will include six original short films over two years, written and directed by the best up-and-coming writing and directing talent from across the UK. And it’s also been announced that the brand new Peter Kay sitcom called Car Share will premiere on the iPlayer before its run on BBC One.

And with England’s cricketers currently struggling in New Zealand and this year’s Ashes series looming, there’s been some good news on the county front, with the BBC and ECB announcement last Thursday confirming online, ball-by-ball commentary of every County Championship match available throughout the season, plus all one-day and T20 matches, via the BBC Sport website. As a former cricket columnist, this makes me very happy indeed. Let’s hope we actually get some kind of summer in which to enjoy it!

 

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

Moving onto comedy, last week saw the start of filming on a new show starring David Mitchell, Robert Webb and Keeley Hawes called Our Men. Set in the fictional Central Asian Republic of Tazbekistan, the duo play diplomats juggling the demands of running an under-funded, under-resourced embassy tasked with maintaining an image of Britain as an important global political heavyweight, whilst also trying to keep good relations with a rigid, autocratic local regime with a dubious human rights record.

As I write, my intrepid team are on set talking to Messrs Mitchell and Webb about the show, so we should have some exclusive video to share with audiences shortly.

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

Photography played an integral part in the modernist movement and has undergone many revolutions itself over the course of its relatively short lifetime as an art-form, and last week BBC North and BBC Two’s The Culture Show announced a collaboration with the Walker Gallery in Liverpool to stage the challenging new project by world-renowned photographer, Rankin, called Alive: In the Face of Death, the details of which can be found here.

Finally on the arts front, last week also saw the BBC Performing Arts Fund announce the winners of its Music Fellowship scheme. The Fund, which was set up in 2003, uses some of the revenue received from the voting lines on BBC One entertainment shows to support aspiring individuals and community groups to achieve success in the performing arts.

On Wednesday 27 February I went to the press launch and screening of the first episode of the new BBC Three drama In The Flesh. As well as all the interviews I did with the director, cast and writer that can still be found here, there is also a new animated promo available that to brings to mind the old ‘Protect and Survive’ government information films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, which struck fear into me as a child.

In other drama news, BBC One announced a new contemporary take on Alexandre Dumas’ classic The Three Musketeers, which features the evergreen Peter Capaldi as Cadinal Richelieu; whilst on Friday the return of Matt Smith as Doctor Who in a new adventure called The Bells of St John was confirmed for Easter Saturday, 30 March.  

And in radio drama, transmission details of a new adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s fantasy tale Neverwhere were confirmed. With an impressive cast that includes James McAvoy, Benedict Cumberbatch, Christopher Lee, Romola Garai, Natalie Dormer and Johnny Vegas, it tells the story of a subterranean world set beneath the streets of London. Jon Jacob was at an airing of the first episode and blogged about it for About The BBC. It will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Saturday 16 March and the remaining five episodes on Radio 4 Extra from Monday 18 to Friday 22 March.

It was a good week for some of our online platforms as well. January 2013 saw a record 272 million requests for TV and radio programmes on BBC iPlayer, with a significant rise in the numbers coming via mobiles and tablets; whilst the recently launched BBC Sport app for iPhone and Android devices reached one million UK downloads.

Finally, CBeebies and BBC Learning announced a brand new show called Magic Hands which will feature poetry translated into British Sign Language. From Robert Louis Stephenson to Roger Stevens and Michaela Morgan, the programmes will be fun, five-minute packages that mix sign language, the spoken word, music and vibrant animation to bring the poems to life and capture the imaginations of both deaf and hearing children. We recently went along to speak to the presenting team and so will have some filmed interviews on the site soon.

 

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

With shows such as The Killing and Borgen, Scandinavian drama has been gaining a lot of plaudits recently, so fans of the latter will be pleased to hear that BBC Four has acquired the third and final series of the BAFTA-winning political thriller. It is expected to air later in the year.

Still on BBC Four, the channel launches a season that uncovers the tumultuous lives of insects. Alien Nation features six programmes that shine a light on this miniature realm in a unique and unprecedented way, going inside ant colonies, investigating the science of metamorphosis and exploring the peculiarities of insect anatomy.

And finally, to music, as last week saw announcements relating to two very different initiatives that demonstrate the power of the human voice to entertain and enrich people’s lives. There was confirmation of the singers shortlisted for this year’s BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, taking place from 16-23 June, which will see competitors perform in front of Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, who continues in her role as patron of the event; whilst the BBC Concert Orchestra will join forces with five of the Alzheimer’s Society’s regional ‘Singing for the Brain’ groups involved in music-making for people dealing with the impact of dementia.

 

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

Talking of new drama, last year I paid a visit to the set of BBC Three’s forthcoming supernatural series, In The Flesh. On a dark, cold November evening in the wilds of Cheshire, I spoke to the cast and make-up designer, had dinner with a zombie and trekked through muddy woodland to watch the show being filmed, conscious that hordes of the undead might descend upon me at any moment. Sounds like hell, but as a horror fan this was my idea of heaven! All of this material went live on the site last Friday and we’ll be confirming transmission details soon.

Another of my passions is most definitely music. So, I was really pleased to see BBC Two announce a feature-length profile of David Bowie. I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since I first heard 'Hunky Dory' when I was six or seven years old (yes, my parents were that hip!). As well as the documentary the BBC will also have a wealth of other Bowie-related content across radio and television this spring.

Also for BBC Two, Warwick Davis will be returning in a one-off special of Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s  mockumentary Life’s Too Short. For those that remember the '80s fantasy film Willow, the fact that Val Kilmer is guest-starring in this episode will make perfect sense. The Hollywood A-lister will be appearing alongside the ‘holy-trinity’ of Keith Chegwin, Les Dennis and Shaun Williamson (best known as ‘Barry’ from EastEnders).

Finally, BBC Four has announced its plans to bid a fond farewell to BBC Television Centre, Controller Richard Klein has confirmed details of a star-studded two-hour celebration of the iconic building. Joining former BBC Chairman Michael Grade in March will be Sir David Attenborough, Ronnie Corbett, Sir David Jason, Jeremy Paxman and many more. Also in the interests of posterity, Google paid a visit to TVC last week to image-map the building. There’s a fascinating blog post from the BBC’s Head of Partnership Development, Bill Thompson, about the initiative here.

 

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

 

The popular drama Jonathan Creek, starring Alan Davies and Sheridan Smith (pictured), is set to make a return to BBC One this Easter.  As well as the two leads, we also confirmed that former Young Ones housemates Rik Mayall and Nigel Planer will be joining the cast, alongside two more BBC comedy greats, Joanna Lumley and Sarah Alexander.

The BBC’s on-demand service, BBC iPlayer, saw record-breaking numbers of requests in 2012. Audiences spent 34% more time watching TV via iPlayer than ever before. The Olympic Opening Ceremony topped iPlayer viewing with 3.3m requests, followed by Top Gear with 2.8m and Sherlock with 2.5m. The total number of requests for TV and radio in 2012 was 2.32 billion.

One of things I look out for in my job is content that attracts an active online following that enjoys sharing material and discussing favourite programmes on social media. One of these is BBC Three’s supernatural drama Being Human, which returns to the channel on Sunday 3 February. There are some great interviews with the cast and lead writer Toby Whithouse here.

Sport is, of course, also very popular online, so Wednesday’s news of our coverage of Rugby’s 6 Nations tournament was very welcome. Matches will be live on BBC One and BBC One HD, and will also be streamed via the BBC Sport website, as well as on mobile and connected devices. There's also coverage on Radio Five live. Great news also that former England coach Sir Clive Woodward will be joining the team. Coverage starts on 2 February.

And finally, tomorrow night sees Bill Gates give the 2013 Dimbleby Lecture, which will be on BBC One at 10.35pm. In it he will outline the efforts being made to eradicate polio through the work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

 

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

 

The start of a new year is always a busy time for us as the television channels and radio networks announce some of their plans for the coming 12 months.

BBC Children’s started the ball rolling with details of loads of great science-related programming for CBBC and CBeebies. There are brand new shows like Absolute Genius, hosted by the irrepressible Dick and Dom, and Fierce Earth which explores the planet’s most tempestuous geological and meteorological phenomena, plus the return of favourites like Nina And The Neurons and Octonauts, all of which feature in a CBBC and CBeebies showreel here.

On Monday, Radio 4 announced a new partnership with arts commissioning organisation Artangel which will see the station put its arts and culture offerings centre stage in 2013. Poetry features prominently and there will be a day-long celebration of the form called Seize The Day, which will feature a host of readings, old and new; whilst poet Paul Farley will be taking the nation’s poetic pulse in a new programme dedicated to contemporary verse.

Sticking with literature, BBC Two will be recreating a Regency era ball this Easter in honour of the 200^th anniversary of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice. Amanda Vickery and Alastair Sooke will be leading the action and the programme will be supported with a variety of online initiatives, including a host of Regency recipes on the BBC Food website. Scotch Collops anyone?

A re-imagining of a different kind will form part of BBC Four, Radio 2 and 6 Music's Golden Age Of The Album, as contemporary musicians recreate The Beatles’ Please Please Me at Abbey Road Studios over the course of 12 hours. The results will be broadcast live on Radio 2 on Monday 11 February, in a day of programming presented by Stuart Maconie and Jo Whiley.

And on Thursday (17 January) BBC One announced What Remains, a new drama written by Tony Basgallop and starring David Threlfall in his first role since playing the infamous Frank Gallagher in Channel 4’s Shameless. It’s currently filming, so no details of a transmission date yet, but I for one am really looking forward to this!

Speaking of transmission dates, when the schedules are confirmed, details of selected BBC programming ends up in a section of the site called Programme Information. These pages feature TV and radio highlights for the coming 21 days, which can be searched for by week, channel/network and day. The most recent edition features two new series: BBC Two documentary Brain Doctors and BBC Three’s People Like Us.  Please do take a look.

 

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.

Welcome to the first in a new series of weekly blog posts in which I round up some of the things we’ve announced on the BBC Media Centre website in the preceding week.

For those who’ve not come across the site before, it’s the place where we announce details of all the Corporation’s output and activities – think of it as a news site specifically about the BBC.

The site’s audience of journalists and media commentators has expanded in recent years to include many of those with a general interest in the programmes we make and the things we do.

One of the best things about my job as editor of the site is that I end up working across the entire breadth of the BBC’s output, which certainly keeps me busy! Whether it’s a new educational initiative from BBC Learning, a series of concerts by one of our orchestras, a new drama commission on BBC One, or a new current affairs strand on Radio 5 live, it really is amazing to see just how much the BBC offers.

And, because what we announce is, by definition, about what’s coming up, I hope these posts will serve as a guide (albeit a partial one) to some of the things people can expect to see on the BBC in the near future.

So, what’s been happening over the last week? On Monday 7 January we launched the new BBC Sport mobile app, which, as a keen football and cricket fan, I downloaded straight away. The editable ‘Quick Links’ button is a great feature, which provides super speedy access to all the latest sports news, results and fixtures. There’s also a handy video on using the app at the link above.

BBC Radio 6 Music is asking listeners to nominate their favourite song over the last 10 years (the station’s lifetime). Voting closes on 25 January and on Friday 1 February Shaun Keaveny will kick off the top 100, which will continue throughout the day, and culminate in the top spot being announced by Steve Lamacq on his evening show.

Sticking with radio, on Thursday BBC Radio 2 outlined plans to enhance their specialist music offering (that’s jazz, blues, folk, country etc), including Mark Radcliffe’s new folk show which will feature future sessions by the likes of Karine Polwart, Chris Wood, Fairport Convention, and, especially exciting for yours truly, the phenomenal guitarist, Richard Thompson.

Moving on to telly, it’s great to see the return of Bernard Cribbins to our screens soon; he will be starring in a new storytelling programme for children called Old Jack’s Boat; this will run across the week on CBeebies and starts on Monday 21 January at 5.40pm. There are video interviews with Bernard, the rest of the cast and one of the writers, Russell T Davies, here.  For those, like me, with fond memories of Jackanory, this will be welcome news indeed!

Finally, we’ve also just announced the Genius Of Invention season on BBC Two. This features a host of forthcoming programmes that explore the inventions that have shaped modern society. Documentaries on Isaac Newton, JMW Turner and Josiah Wedgwood, sit alongside Dan Snow’s history of the railways and a new series hosted by Professor Brian Cox that uncovers some of Britain’s scientific heroes.

Ben Murray is Editor of the BBC Media Centre.

Follow @BBCPress on Twitter.