BBC ups arts and music spend

UK pubcaster the BBC has announced it will double investment in arts and music over the next two years on its channel BBC2, with new commissions including a doc on blackface minstrelsy hosted by Homeland actor David Harewood.

Charlotte Moore

As part of the renewed focus on culture, the BBC says it will stream up to eight major arts and music boxsets for its VoD service iPlayer each year.

The news comes as the broadcaster has revealed a slate of new programming, such as the Harewood-fronted 1X60’ doc Blackface.

Other commissions for BBC2 include two-parter art history doc Mary Beard on Forbidden Art, the second series of Secrets of the Museum and a series on the past 1,000 years of British creativity, The Making of Us: A History of British Creativity.

Elsewhere, the BBC has picked up shows based on the lives of cultural figures including novelist and screenwriter Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (BBC1,1×60’), illustrator and author Sir Quentin Blake (BBC2, 1×60’) and actress and author Jackie Collins (BBC2, 1×90’).

There will also be a new series of Between the Covers with Sara Cox (BBC2, 6×30’) and a series in which book and travel lover Richard E Grant visits places that have inspired writers, called Write Around The World for BBC2 (3×60’).

Amid the changes, BBC2 controller Patrick Holland will take on the expanded role of director of factual, arts and classical music, while recruitment will begin for a head of arts and classical music and a commissioner responsible for classical music and the BBC Proms.

Meanwhile, controller of pop music, Lorna Clarke, will commission pop music-focused TV shows and is hiring a commissioning team to buy programmes in that genre, including a commissioning editor, a commissioning executive and an assistant commissioner.

Chief content officer Charlotte Moore said: “The BBC has always prided itself on having a world-class arts and music offer. The BBC wants to build on that to expand the reach of arts and music programming and deliver even more unique, high-impact content for the public.

“Alongside that, we want to be Britain’s creative partner and platform for talent. I am excited about the content we have commissioned and how our new approach will help that reach more people.”