The Stage

BBC plans season of modern fairytales

Published Wednesday 4 October 2006 at 11:45 by Liz Thomas

Exclusive: The BBC is lining up a major new drama season updating classic fairytales, following on from the success of recent modern TV adaptations of Shakespeare and Chaucer’s work.

Fairy Tales will be a sequence of single productions offering contemporary interpretations of traditional stories such as Snow White, Hansel and Gretel or the Ugly Duckling. It is understood the programmes will not strictly stick to the exact plots and characters but will tackle the themes from each story, as with the Shakespeare Re-told run, which included Macbeth set in a restaurant kitchen and starring Keeley Hawes, while Damian Lewis and Sarah Parish appeared in Much Ado About Nothing, this time in a TV newsroom. Prior to that the Corporation won acclaim with its reworking of The Canterbury Tales featuring Julie Walters as an ageing television actress desperate for love in the Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale set in suburban pub, which catapulted Billie Piper back into public consciousness.

BBC controller of fiction Jane Tranter described the project as “substantial” and revealed: “Fairy Tales [are] six single films, authored by six significant writers, made by Mark Redhead and Hat Trick.”

The aim is for the dramas, which are still in the early stages of development, to begin production by next summer for broadcast in later 2007 or 2008. The season will in the main be made in Northern Ireland as part of the broadcaster’s pledge to increase the amount of programming from the nations and regions. It has also received funding from the Northern Ireland Film and Television Council.