The Stage

Exclusive: Sky Arts to create Play for Today successor

Published Thursday 7 January 2010 at 10:55 by Matthew Hemley

Sky Arts is set to follow its acclaimed Theatre Live! series with a brand-new show that is being viewed as a modern successor to the BBC’s Play for Today strand, The Stage can reveal.

Sandi Toksvig, who was the founder and artistic director of Theatre Live!, is again working with the broadcaster on the new programme, which will feature dramas screened live that have been written by established playwrights.

This will set it apart from Theatre Live!, which featured six novelists making their debuts as playwrights, and make it more akin to Play for Today, which was broadcast on the BBC from 1970-84 and saw playwrights creating single dramas for television.

The new Sky Arts series will also be more like Play for Today in that, unlike Theatre Live!, the works created for it will not be performed in front of a live audience.

Plans for more live drama on Sky Arts come at a time when concerns have been raised for the future of arts programming on terrestrial television, with ITV recently deciding to axe long-running series The South Bank Show and close its arts department later this year.

In addition, Channel 4’s provision of the genre has been questioned, with the broadcaster unable to confirm when it will replace Jan Younghusband, former head of arts and performance, who left last year to join the BBC.

Meanwhile, the BBC has faced repeated calls to revive its Play for Today series, with leading theatre figures, including Kevin Spacey and David Hare, complaining that television has neglected the single-drama format.

A production source said: “Sky Arts is going again with another series of a very similar nature [to Theatre Live!].

“It will be live drama, with six new plays and six writers. But there are various versions flying around about what format the series will take.

“They are planning to box fairly high in terms of who they approach, which would be very exciting.”

Playwrights who are believed to have been approached to create works for the series include Willy Russell and David Edgar. Both of the playwrights have previously written for the BBC’s Play for Today strand. Edgar confirmed to The Stage that he had been approached to write for the new series, but said that he was unable to take part. Russell was unavailable for comment as The Stage went to press.

Joyce Nettles, casting director for Theatre Live!, is likely to work on the new show. The Company Presents, the theatre production house that worked with Sky Arts on Theatre Live!, will not be involved.

Sky Arts declined to comment.