The Stage

Purefoy in Beeb’s Blackbeard drama

Published Tuesday 23 August 2005 at 15:15 by Liz Thomas

Infamous 18th-century pirate Blackbeard is to be the subject of a new £2.5 million production for BBC1 starring James Purefoy.

Part drama, part documentary, the programme will be shown over two 60-minute episodes and will tackle Blackbeard’s rise to power, his siege of Charleston and the events leading up to his death at the hands of the Royal Navy.

The show has been made by Dangerous Films, the independent production company behind The Iceman Murder and Bafta-nominated war epic D-Day, which were also broadcast on BBC1. A spokesman for the indie described the programme as a factual drama backed up with commentary.

Purefoy’s credits include Don Quixote and The Mayor of Casterbridge for ITV and hit films Vanity Fair and A Knight’s Tale. He can also be seen in the BBC’s forthcoming epic factual drama Rome.

Programmes combining drama and documentary have become popular with broadcasters hoping to bring a wider audience to science and history topics. In the past few years, the BBC has aired shows such as Space Odyssey, Dirty War and Supervolcano using this format and ITV has commissioned The Flood, which will look at the repercussions of a meteorological disaster hitting London. The shows have provided new avenues of employment for actors, with Blackbeard involving 15 speaking parts and 40 extras.

• Indie Box TV is working with Canadian broadcaster CTV to produce a drama about disgraced tycoon Conrad Black. Due South star Paul Gross and NYPD Blue actor Currie Graham have been shortlisted to play the former Telegraph owner with a final decision expected within the month. The two-hour drama is based on the biography Shades of Black by Richard Siklos. The BBC is in talks to broadcast the programme in the UK.