BBC raises curtain on Shakespeare season

BBC controller of drama Ben Stephenson has stepped up production across the corporation’s four national channels, calling in director Sam Mendes’ prodco for a Shakespeare season.

Stephenson has unveiled programmes for the next six months, including a Shakespeare season on BBC2 from Neal Street Productions, the UK indie co-founded by American Beauty director Mendes.

The channel will screen four of Shakespeare’s History plays – Richard II, Henry IV part I and II, and Henry V – which have been exec-produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris (Starter For Ten, Stuart: A Life Backwards).

Oscar-winning producer-director Jane Campion (The Piano, Bright Star) is on board for drama series Top of the Lake, which unravels the mystery of a 12-year-old girl who goes missing in rural New Zealand. It was penned by Campion and Gerard Lee and will be produced in 2011 by Emile Sherman and Iain Canning of Anglo-Australian prodco See-Saw Films.

British playwright and screenwriter David Hare returns to the BBC with a play he will also direct, commissioned by BBC Films’ creative director Christine Langan.

Stephenson said of his approach to drama programming: “We should be contradictory and a broad church in our ability to mix high art with the best of popular culture.

“The Song of Lunch should rub shoulders with EastEnders, Sherlock with Shakespeare, Sir David Hare with Steven Moffat, Emma Thompson with Idris Elba…”