BBC1 lines up legal drama

UK pubcaster BBC1 has placed an order for 31 hours of original drama, including new projects from the writers of Spooks, Scott & Bailey and Inside Men.

The Escape Artist (3×60′), written by David Wolstencroft (Spooks), follows a talented junior barrister who suffers terrible consequences when he helps to acquit the prime suspect in a murder trial.

Endor Productions’ Hilary Bevan Jones and Paul Frift will produce, with BBC exec producer Matthew Read.

What Remains (4×60′) is a BBC production in which the body of a single woman is discovered two years after her death, leading neighbouring residents to become the prime suspects in her murder.

Tony Basgallop writes, with Hilary Salmon exec producing.

Happy Valley (6×60′), from Sally Wainwright (Last Tango In Halifax, Scott & Bailey), tells the story of a botched kidnapping. Red Production Company’s Nicola Shindler and the BBC’s Read exec produce.

Red Planet Pictures has also been commissioned to produce a police drama, By Any Means (6×60′), about a covert police department that goes to any lengths to capture the criminal elite. Tony Jordan heads the team of writers and exec produces with Belinda Campbell and the BBC’s Polly Hill.

BBC1 has also commissioned a two-part serial called The Great Train Robbery, based on the real-life event and written by Chris Chibnall. Produced by World Productions (United), it tells the story of the notorious heist on its 50th anniversary from the viewpoint of both the robbers and the police.

It is exec produced by Hill and World’s Simon Heath, and produced by Julia Stannard.

It follows rival ITV’s five-part series Mrs Biggs, which dramatised the relationship between train robber Ronnie Biggs and his wife Charmian.