The Stage

McGovern and Poliakoff brought on board by Corporation in drama drive

Published Tuesday 6 December 2005 at 11:45 by Liz Thomas

Big name drama writers, including Russell T Davies, Stephen Poliakoff, Jimmy McGovern and Tony Marchant, head BBC1’s programme line-up for 2006.

The Corporation is hoping that a combination of top creative talent and well known faces will boost the genre and the channel after a difficult few years.

McGovern, best known for productions such as ITV1’s Cracker and Bloody Sunday, has written a new drama series set in the north of England. The Street stars Jim Broadbent, Jane Horrocks, Sue Johnstone and Timothy Spall. Meanwhile Poliakoff returns after the success of the Emmy-winning The Lost Prince. BBC1 is broadcasting two major interlinked plays tackling the state of the nation over the past three decades. Both productions have a stellar cast, including Miranda Richardson, Bill Nighy, Damian Lewis and Robert Lindsay. Marchant looks at fertility treatment in drama The Family Man, which features Trevor Eve.

Tamzin Outhwaite and Max Beesley star in Hotel Babylon and John Simm plays a young detective transported back to 1973 in Life On Mars. The much-lauded Christmas special and second series of Doctor Who, starring David Tennant and Billie Piper, also features in the channel’s highlights of the months ahead. The Impressionists is a landmark factual drama series, which looks at the relationship between Monet, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir and Manet.

Controller, Peter Fincham, said: “Many of the strongest voices in UK contemporary drama feature. Overall this is an ambitious season demonstrating an enormous range. BBC1 is heading in the right direction and working with the right talent.”

Davina McCall will present a new series on Wednesday evenings as part of the Corporation’s attempt to boost audience figures on a day that it faces stiff competition from rival programming such as Channel 4’s Lost. The star, best known for fronting Channel 4’s Big Brother, recorded a pilot of the show earlier this year. Her last project for the BBC - He’s Having A Baby, broadcast at primetime on Saturday - was a high profile flop. Also in the entertainment file for 2006 is Just the Two of Us, which will see some of the nation’s favourite singers paired with well known faces to compete in a series of live duet performances.