The Stage

Maxwell Martin to star in BBC2 winter/spring line-up

Published Tuesday 20 November 2007 at 17:55 by Matthew Hemley

Bleak House star Anna Maxwell Martin is to feature in a new drama for BBC2 that forms part of a season looking at Britain’s white working class.

Written by Abi Morgan, the drama is called White Girl and focuses on how an 11-year-old girl deals with her family’s move to an entirely Muslim community in Bradford, where she and her siblings are the only white children at a nearby school.

It is included in White, a special series of programmes on BBC2 looking at why some sections of the community feel more and more marginalised today.

BBC2 controller Roly Keating said: “The White season is a complex look at how life has changed for the white working class in Britain.

“It will enable the audience to consider the views and circumstances of people who have a strong point of view and join in the debate, both online with the BBC and in their own homes and communities.”

White Girl is also part of BBC2’s winter and spring 2008 line-up announced today.

Other highlights include a new drama series called House of Saddam, which takes a look at Saddam Hussein’s regime and its subsequent downfall, and a new series of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood, which moves to BBC2 from digital channel BBC3.

Comedy includes Taking the Flak, about a team of journalists sending back nightly reports on the progress of a small African war which stars Doon Mackichan and Martin Jarvis, and Never Better, a comedy with Green Wing’s Stephen Mangan playing a recovering alcoholic.

The channel will also screen Lab Rats, a comedy set in a university laboratory starring Chris Addison from The Thick of It.

The winter/spring schedule also sees the launch of a new documentary strand called Wonderland, which, as reported by The Stage, includes a documentary looking at Norman Wisdom and his life today.