Comedy this month includes a new festive edition of the perennially popular Royle Family, duo Watson And Oliver get a full series after a successful pilot and Off Their Rockers imports the popular Belgian hidden camera show featuring a group of badly behaved pensioners. Funny Families will attempt to turn the real life antics of one family into an animated sitcom, Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding gets his own sketch show and The Angelos Neil Epithemiou Show sees the Shooting Stars character created by Dan Skinner get his own pilot.
Over in drama Titanic – The Untold Story follows the story behind the construction of the fated liner, Coup looks at the link between MPs and the world of high finance and The Importance of Being Whatever is a new take on the Oscar Wilde classic set in modern Ireland. Lots of returning series this month including the Fabulous Baker Boys, Case Sensitive, Monroe, Scott and Bailey and Merlin.
Factual for August includes natural history series How Life Works examining the interdependence of unlikely creatures in the animal kingdom, The Dark following the 60 of animal life that is nocturnal and Afterlife – The Science Of Decay looking at the science behind the everyday decay of food and objects. Parallel Lives looks at different people who were all born on the same day, Entrepreneur Richard Branson gets a one-off special looking at his life in the run-up to his 60th birthday and a new light-hearted documentary series follows the hopefuls at the London School of Modelling. Murder Trial (W.T.) will film inside the Scottish Court Service during a high-profile murder trial, Amal Fashnau examines homophobia in the world of professional football for a new documentary and a new social history series will examine the Coronation year and its long-term impact on life in the UK.
Over in Film, Filth adapts the novel by Irvine Walsh with Jon Baird expected to direct, High Rise is based on the J. G. Ballard novel about a turf war that breaks out within a tower block and ID2 is a sequel to the popular 1990s football hooligan drama. Welcome To Purgatory follows the exploits of five people trying to escape from hell, The Sweeney finally gears up for an autumn shoot and Trishna is a modern day take on Tess Of The D’Urbervilles with Michael Winterbottom Directing. Lots of others to keep an eye out for including Astérix and Obélix – God Save Britannia, Good Vibrations, Crooked House,
Run & Jump, Our Kind Of Traitor and Formula 1 racing drama Rush with Ron Howard directing.
Finally the Bizarre premise of I Secretly Hate You looks at people using social networking media to vent their frustration and anger at people, organizations and places. Being made for the US market right now but don’t be surprised to see UK version soon.