The Stage

Fewer but more expensive dramas, says BBC1 controller

Published Tuesday 2 May 2006 at 15:40 by Liz Thomas

Peter Fincham, controller of BBC1, has admitted there will be less drama on the channel, following recommendations to create fewer titles with longer runs, as outlined in the Corporation’s policy blueprint Creative Future.

He said that BBC1 would be the home of fewer but more expensive, quality dramas that make an impact and pointed to the success of the recent television adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, which starred Gillian Anderson and Charles Dance.

Fincham said: “I don’t think what we are talking about here is like a 90 degree turn. I think that what we have found is that impact comes with scale and not necessarily just in drama - look at the success of Planet Earth.”

He added that the intention was to raise the bar by ploughing cash into fewer titles with longer runs but insisted that BBC1 would still offer “an enormous range” in its drama output.

The Creative Future recommendations in the genre also suggested there should be more investment in big-hitting audience favourites such as EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City. It also claimed that the space needed to be found across the Corporation for outstanding writers and at least four landmark dramas should be commissioned for Radio 4 each year.

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