BBC picks up new Danish drama

The BBC is lining up three new series including a Danish political thriller from the makers of Bafta winner The Killing.

BBC4 has acquired Borgen (10×60′) from DR/Danish Broadcasting Corporation, whose hit The Killing returns to BBC4 for a second season this summer.

The new series is produced by Camilla Hammerich at DR and directed by Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, Rumle Hammerich, Annette K Olesen and Mikkel Nørgaard.

The corporation has also commissioned a two-part science documentary featuring Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond about the workings of the Earth, dubbed Richard Hammond’s Journey to the Centre of the Planet.

The series will air this summer and is a coproduction between BBC Scotland, Discovery and BBC Worldwide. The executive producers for the BBC are Will Aslett and Greg Lanning, and the series producer is Lucy van Beek.

More details have been released about the new BBC1 6×60′ drama series Call The Midwife, which is about to start filming and is due to air in 2012.

The series, based on the best-selling memoirs of Jennifer Worth, looks at the colourful stories of midwifery and families in East London in the 1950s.

Worth had been working with UK indie Neal Street Productions, which is making the programme, and screenwriter Heidi Thomas (Upstairs Downstairs, Cranford) until she passed away this month.

Jenny Agutter (The Railway Children, Spooks) has been cast in one of the lead roles. The executive producer for Neal Street is Pippa Harris (Revolutionary Road, Stuart: A Life Backwards) with Christopher Aird as executive producer for BBC.