News

A first look at Sally Wainwright‘s next project, Riot Women, has been unveiled by the BBC and streaming service BritBox.

The BAFTA-winning writer, known for Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax and Gentleman Jack, has taken on a new six-part series led by Joanna Scanlan (After Love, The Thick of It), Rosalie Craig (Moonflower Murders, Serpent Queen) Tamsin Greig (Sexy Beast, The Completely Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin), Lorraine Ashbourne (Sherwood, Alma’s Not Normal) and Amelia Bullmore (The Buccaneers, Vienna Blood).

The newly released images show the five women pulling together as punk rockers, forming a makeshift band for a local talent contest. But in writing their first original song, the group soon discover they have a lot to say. Taj Atwal (Line of Duty), Chandeep Uppal (Holby City), and Macy-Jacob Seelochan (Shadow and Bone) feature as the band’s riotous backing singers.

Sally Wainwright’s ‘Riot Women...

Exclusive: The BBC assembled some of the UK’s finest drama and comedy producers to discuss the scripted funding crisis currently gripping the industry, we can reveal.

Described as a “gathering of the families,” BBC director general Tim Davie and content chief Charlotte Moore invited the group of seasoned executives to a lunch meeting at London’s Charlotte Street Hotel in late November.

Deadline is disclosing details from the private talks for the first time after Jane Featherstone, the Black Doves producer who was in attendance last year, told British Parliament yesterday that the BBC is struggling to fund “multiple” series on its books.

Others at the BBC meeting included The Crown producer Andy Harries, Ludwig maker Kenton Allen, The Traitors producer Stephen Lambert, and Jimmy Mulville, the maker of Derry Girls. Tim Hincks, producer of Alma’s Not Normal, was also in attendance.

Sources familiar with the gathering said the talks were constructive and pragmatic,...

We’re welcomed back into the lively world of Sophie Willan’s BBC comedy Alma’s Not Normal for a second helping of its heartwarming yet hilarious tales. Created by and starring Willan, the show takes its semiautobiographical inspiration from her upbringing in Bolton. Season 2 finds endearing leading lady Alma Nuttall returning to her hometown, still striving for glamour despite obstacles, and reuniting with her unforgettable friends and family.

Alma, played with boundless charm by Willan, greets us afresh sporting a baby pink moped in place of her trusty bike. Her trademark optimism persists despite joblessness. We also reconnect with Alma’s mother Lin, suffering ongoing mental health issues brilliantly portrayed by Siobhan Finneran. Lin finds herself once more entangled in the troubled healthcare system. Then there’s Alma’s flamboyant grandmother Joan, brought to vibrant life by Lorraine Ashbourne. Joan’s usual high spirits are tempered by a revealing new health battle.

On Monday 7 October 2024, BBC Two broadcasts Alma’s Not Normal!

Season 2 Episode 1 Episode Summary

In the upcoming episode of “Alma’s Not Normal,” Alma returns to her hometown with hopes of making some changes in her life. This episode promises to be filled with humor and unexpected twists as Alma tries to take control of her future.

Alma’s first big move is to find a talent agent. She is excited about the possibilities, but soon discovers that her new agent is not what he seems. He has a reputation for being a bit of a blagger, which could lead to some funny and awkward situations. Alma’s eagerness to succeed might blind her to the red flags, making for an entertaining storyline.

In her quest for a fresh start, Alma also decides to buy a new set of wheels. However, her choice comes with a price tag that she cannot really afford.

Alma’s Not Normal is set to make its return on 7 October, 2024, on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer. Created, written by, and starring Sophie Willan, the show follows Bolton native Alma Nuthall, a free-spirited woman tackling life alongside her eccentric family. The series has gained significant attention for its sharp humour and raw portrayal […]

Alma’s Not Normal Returns 7 October with Series 2 on BBC Two and iPlayer...

The eccentric and very funny series Alma’s Not Normal is returning to BBC Two and BBC iPlayer this autumn, and a first-look image has been released to tease the upcoming second series. Created, written by, and starring Sophie Willan, the show centres on Alma Nuthall, a thirty-something aspiring actress from Bolton, who is trying to […]

Alma’s Not Normal Returns for Series 2 on BBC This Autumn...

Exclusive: Here’s a first look at Sherwood Season 2, the highly-anticipated next instalment of James Graham’s BBC drama.

Filming on the House Productions show recently took place in and around the UK city Nottingham, and the images show the likes of Lorraine Ashbourne, Monica Dolan, Perry Fitzpatrick, David Morrissey, David Harewood, Michael Balogun, Christine Bottomley, Oliver Huntingdon and Robert Lindsay in character. Scroll to the bottom for all seven images.

Season 1 was a ratings success and was one of the most-watched British dramas of 2022, following a murder that shocks a former mining town where divisions still remain years after the miners’ strikes of 1984 and 1985.

The second season will introduce two new families, who become entangled with the Sparrows from the first run, entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries, revenge, and betrayal. At the same time, a new Sheriff of Nottingham fights passionately against a proposed new mine,...

Actor Andrew Buchan makes his screenwriting debut with ITV thriller Passenger, and here’s the trailer.

Andrew Buchan is probably best known for playing grieving father Mark Latimer in Chris Chibnall’s whodunnit Broadchurch. He has also played the title role in drama The Fixer, as well as parts in films like Nowhere Boy, All The Money In The World and The Mercy.

He now makes his screenwriting debut with ITV thriller Passenger.

The synopsis reads as follows:

Riya (Loki star Wunmi Mosaku) arrived in the quiet town of Chadder Vale five years ago and has since been searching for something, anything that will make her feel alive again. Then one night local girl Katie Wells (Rowan Robinson) mysteriously disappears. The town barely has time to register her absence before she reappears the next day, apparently safe and sound. The townsfolk ask few questions and normal life resumes. But for Riya,...

We’ve had a marvellous run of Taskmaster series lately, so when a new line-up announcement is on the horizon, it’s easy to wonder whether the winning streak will continue or if we’re due a dud.

Never fear – Alex Horne and co. have delivered once again, although the series 17 Taskmaster line-up might not be quite what you’re expecting. Instead of the now-traditional Taskmaster family line-up, this time they’ve gone for a veteran from outside the world of stand-up comedy, plus four rising stars with slightly less mainstream recognition than normal. As ever with this show though, anybody you’re not familiar with at the start, you’ll almost certainly love by the end of the series.

The Taskmaster series 17 line-up is: Steve Pemberton, Sophie Willan, Nick Mohammed, John Robins and Joanne McNally! And here they are appearing in the very first trailer for the new run:...

As Reece Shearsmith just announced, it’s the beginning of the end for Inside No. 9. Filming on the horror-comedy anthology’s ninth and final series began in late 2023, which means a wrap on one of the BBC’s most consistently entertaining and inventive shows is imminent.

Oh it's the beginning of the end. #insideno9

— Reece Shearsmith ❄️ (@ReeceShearsmith) January 8, 2024

Series nine is expected to air in spring 2024, and will add a final six episodes to the existing 49 stories in Shearsmith and co-creator Steve Pemberton’s back catalogue. Barring the first look image above, which shows Pemberton in drag at an underground train station (platform no. nine?), we don’t know anything about the stories, settings or characters yet, but we do know who’ll be joining the pair as guest stars… and it’s a deep bench.

One of Britain’s greatest working actors, Eddie Marsan will appear. As will the brilliant Siobhan Finneran,...

Casting

A stellar cast has been revealed by the BBC and House Productions for Season 2 of James Graham’s BAFTA-winning hit crime drama “Sherwood.”

Directed by Clio Barnard (“Ali & Ava”) the news cast included David Harewood (“The Night Manager”), Robert Lindsay (“My Family”), Monica Dolan (“Black Mirror”), Sharlene Whyte (“Small Axe”), Stephen Dillane (“Vigil”), Ria Zmitrowicz (“The Power”), Aisling Loftus (“The Midwich Cuckoos”), Robert Emms (“Andor”), Michael Balogun (“Top Boy”), Christine Bottomley (“Domina”), Oliver Huntingdon (“Happy Valley”) Jorden Myrie (“Mood”), Conor Deane (“All Creatures Great & Small”) and Bethany Asher (“Wild Bill”).

The returning cast includes David Morrissey (“Red Riding”), Lesley Manville (“Mrs Harris Goes to Paris”), Lorraine Ashbourne (“Alma’s Not Normal”), Philip Jackson (“Raised by Wolves”), Perry Fitzpatrick (“Line of Duty”), Bill Jones (“The Village”) and Adam Hugill (“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”).

Season 2 introduces two new families entering a complex web of local gangs, old rivalries,...

Award-winning writer and producer Chris Heath has announced a brand-new audio sitcom Cat/Person; a series of overheard conversations between a broken man Matthew (Chris Heath) and Hobson (Sue Vincent), his sarcastic, selfish, sociopathic rescue cat. Cat/Person accurately and hilariously encapsulates the kind of relentless emotional hazing that cats love to lavish on their eager-to-please ‘owners’.

Matthew is doing his best to keep himself from falling into a black hole following an unhappy divorce. To get him through the dark days, his friends recommend that he gets himself an emotional support animal.

Unfortunately, after a trip to the local Animal Shelter, he chose Hobson, a rescue cat played by Sue Vincent. Matthew is sentimental, messy and lonely. Hobson is hungry and is insisting on a treat. Immediately.

In each episode, we’ll overhear a selection of conversations between human and cat, as Matthew tries his best to navigate his...

Jodie Whittaker, Tamara Lawrance and Bella Ramsey don prison-issue tracksuits in the first image from their upcoming series “Time.”

“Doctor Who” star Whittaker, Lawrance (“The Silent Twins”) and Ramsey (“The Last of Us”) star as three inmates in a women’s prison in the U.K. in a follow-up to the Sean Bean series of the same name.

Jimmy McGovern returns to pen the second anthology-style season of the show with some actors from the series’ first outing – including Siobhan Finneran as prison chaplain Marie-Louise – reprising their roles. Helen Black co-writes while Andrea Harkin directs.

Also joining the cast are Sophie Willan (“Alma’s Not Normal”), Julie Graham (“Shetland”), Alicia Forde (“Waterloo Road”), Lisa Millett (“The A Word”), Kayla Meikle (“The Capture”), James Corrigan (“This Is Going to Hurt”), Nicholas Nunn (“Clique”) and Maimuna Memon (“Sherwood”).

Set in the fictional, high-security prison Carlingford, Kelsey (Ramsey), Orla (Whittaker) and Abi (Lawrance) arrive...

“What We Do in the Shadows” delighted its fans for a continued fourth season last year as the hit vampire comedy reached new heights in terms of critical success and straight-up laugh-out-loud moments.

Jermaine Clement‘s series, adapted from his and Taika Waititi‘s 2014 movie of the same name, follows four vampire roommates living in modern-day New York: Matt Berry‘s Laszlo, Kayvan Novak‘s Nandor, Mark Proksch‘s Colin Robinson, and Natasia Demetriou‘s Nadja. All four comedians have their own style and brand of comedy that combine to create a brilliant show.

As Nadja, Demetriou is the only female lead and takes full advantage of this spotlight — her pitch-perfect accent blending brilliantly with her skills as a physical comedy actress. Demetriou is also, clearly, an intelligent, natural performer — as Nadja, she knows when to ramp it up, when to dial it down, and fulfills the potential of each...

British Asian actor and writer Ambreen Razia has secured a development deal with Expectation Entertainment (BAFTA-winning series “Alma’s Not Normal”) to write an original comedy drama series about addiction and postpartum depression between a South Asian mother and daughter.

The series, which has the working title “Wasted,” will follow the story of a junior doctor and the ancestral legacy which looms over today’s generation of Muslim immigrants.

As an actor Razia most recently played Shandy Fine in hit Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso.” Razia’s previous writing credits include “Hounslow Diaries” for BBC Three, which was adapted from the stage play “Diary of a Hounslow Girl,” a project that looked at the lives of modern Muslim girls in London. Recent stage plays include “Pot” and “Favour.” She has also been part of the writers’ room for Channel 4’s BAFTA-winning series “We Are Lady Parts,” directed by Nida Manzoor,...

ITV has unveiled a slate of new comedy commissions, most of which will premiere on Itvx, its upcoming free streaming service.

New comedy titles include “Plebs: Soldiers of Rome,” “Deep Fake Neighbour Wars,” “Ruby Speaking Count,” “Abdulla” and “Significant Other.”

“The arrival of Itvx gives us more opportunities to commission a broad range of comedies and a dedicated place for the genre to call home,” said Nana Hughes, ITV’s Head of Comedy. The executive added that ITV aspired to showcase a “huge cross section of contemporary, diverse and inclusive comedy.”

“We want to take risks but most importantly we want our audiences to find shows that reflect them and make them laugh,” Hughes continued.

“Plebs: Soldiers of Rome” is a a feature-length special based on the award-winning comedy series “Plebs” which has had five successful seasons. “Plebs” is directed and written by Sam Leifer and co-written by Tom Basden.

BBC comedy Motherland has won its first BAFTA for its final season in the Best Scripted Comedy category as the award was presented by new Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa.

The London-set sitcom starring Anna Maxwell-Martin and Diane Morgan recently aired its third season and has been a BBC Two staple for more than five years.

It beat Channel 4 double Stath Lets Flats and We Are Lady Parts and fellow BBC comedy Alma’s Not Normal.

The show is produced by Sharon Horgan’s Merman, with Horgan earlier winning for Best Single Drama Together. Horgan also writes with Graham Linehan.

“We are just a bunch of mums on the piss so we didn’t expect this,” said creator Holly Walsh, who thanked the team and cast and praised public service broadcasting for being “so bloody brilliant.”

The award was presented by Sex Education star Gatwa, who was earlier today revealed to...

British television stars are preparing for the biggest night on the calendar, with one title a firm favourite going into this evening’s BAFTA TV Awards.

Channel 4’s drama It’s a Sin, a drama about a group of young people facing the Aids crisis of the 1980s, is the firm frontrunner with 11 nominations including five acting nods.

See the full list of BAFTA TV Awards nominations below

The mini-series, created by former Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies, became Channel 4’s most successful ever drama when it was broadcast last year. Davies is also recognised in the Best Writer category this evening.

The international category is strong, with two global hits Succession (HBO) and Squid Game (Netflix) up against Call My Agent! and Lupin (both Netflix), Mare of Easttown (HBO) and The Underground Railroad (Amazon).

Other nominees include Kate Winslet (Mare of Easttown) and Matthew Macfadyen (Succession), while Boiling...

The Royal Television Society Program Awards 2022 started with a slap on Wednesday evening, when nominee Aj Odudu ran up to the stage and pretended to strike host Tom Allen.

“Oh my God, Aj, oh my God – I’m the one who’s lost their hair, don’t hit me,” Allen, who is bald, quipped in the evidently pre-rehearsed skit. “I never put my wife anywhere near your mouth.”

Continuing the reference to the altercation between Will Smith and Chris Rock, which took place at the Oscars on Sunday night, Allen continued: “I’ve got to look my best for tomorrow, I’ve got an audition for ‘G.I. Jane 2.'”

Watching from the audience at the Jw Marriott Grosvenor House in Mayfair, where the awards were taking place, were a bevy of well-known faces including “The Batman” star Andy Serkis, “Supergirl’s” David Harewood and “Succession” actor Matthew Macfadyen. Macfayden was accompanying his wife Keeley Hawes,...

The 1997 feature took more than $250m at the box office.

Hit UK comedy The Full Monty is to return as a limited series on Disney+ with the original cast, nearly 25 years after the original broke box office records.

The eight-part series was developed by Searchlight Television and FX and will premiere on streaming platform Disney+ globally, Star+ in Latin American and Hulu in the US.

It has been created and written by the original film’s screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, and Uberto Pasolini returns as producer. Also reprising their roles are lead cast members Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Lesley Sharp, Hugo Speer,...

Filming commenced on Monday in U.K. cities Sheffield and Manchester on “The Full Monty,” a Disney Plus limited series adaptation of the BAFTA-winning hit 1997 film.

The U.K. original series drama series (8×60’) reunites the film’s Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and producer Uberto Pasolini (“Nowhere Special”) and is co-commissioned by Disney Plus and FX. It will follow the original cast as they navigate the post-industrial city of Sheffield and society’s crumbling healthcare, education and employment sectors and explore how communal effort can still triumph over adversity.

The cast reprising their roles from the film include Robert Carlyle (“Trainspotting”) as Gaz, Mark Addy (“Game of Thrones”) as Dave, Lesley Sharp (“Before We Die”) as Jean, Hugo Speer (“Britannia”) as Guy, Paul Barber (“The Dumping Ground”) as Horse, Steve Huison (“The Royle Family”) as Lomper, Wim Snape (“Gentleman Jack”) as Nathan and Tom Wilkinson (“Batman Begins”) as Gerald.

Russell T Davies’ Channel 4/HBO Max drama It’s a Sin scooped the coveted Best Drama and Best Writer prizes at this year’s Broadcasting Press Guild (Bpg) Awards, while the BBC/Amazon’s A Very British Scandal took home Best Drama Mini-Series and Best Actress for Claire Foy.

Red Production Company’s show about a group of friends during the Aids epidemic was nominated in six categories and won two, with Davies beating off competition from the likes of Time’s Jimmy McGovern and A Very British Scandal’s Sarah Phelps.

The latter show won Best Drama MIni-Series while The Crown star Foy was handed Best Actress, with Stephen Graham taking Best Actor for his performance in McGovern’s BBC prison drama Time.

The BBC was very much the big winner, also taking Best Documentary Series for Blair & Brown: The New Labour Revolution, although Disney+ scooped its first ever Bpg...

Channel 4’s “It’s A Sin” and the BBC’s “A Very British Scandal” have won the top honors at the annual Broadcasting Press Guild (Bpg) Awards.

“It’s a Sin” won best drama series and its creator, Russell T. Davies won best writer. “A Very British Scandal” was voted best drama mini-series and its star Claire Foy won best actress.

Stephen Graham won best actor for his performances in Channel 4’s “Help” and BBC’s “Time.” Peter Jackson’s Disney Plus series “The Beatles: Get Back” was voted best documentary mini-series. Bob Mortimer and Paul Whitehouse won the best entertainment award for the third time with BBC’s “Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing,” while the best comedy award went to “Alma’s Not Normal” (BBC).

Jon Snow of Channel 4 News won the Harvey Lee Award for outstanding contribution to broadcasting. The Bpg breakthrough award went to the actor and writer of BBC’s “Starstruck,...

Russell T Davies Channel 4/HBO AIDS drama It’s a Sin has continued its awards season domination by picking up six nominations at the Royal Television Society (Rts) Awards.

The show from Red Production Company also has six Broadcasting Press Guild nods and has been recognized by the Rts for Writer (Davies), Actor (Female – Keeley Hawes), Actor (Male – Olly Alexander & Callum Scott Howells), Breakthrough and the coveted Limited Series.

Host broadcaster Channel 4 picked up 28 nominations, with the BBC edging it out with 30, Sky with 10 and ITV with eight.

BBC One, ITV and Sky Arts will compete for the prestigious Rts Channel of the Year award at the March ceremony in London.

Other high-profile nominees include The Serpent’s Tahir Rahim against the two It’s a Sin actors, Stephen’s Sharlene Whyte and In My Skin’s Gabrielle Creevey against Hawes, and Jack Thorne for Help against The Serpent’s Richard Warlow...

The Royal Television Society (Rts) has unveiled the nominees for this year’s Rts Programme Awards.

“It’s a Sin” has scored six nominations, including nods for Keeley Hawes and Olly Alexander (pictured above), while Tahar Rahim has been nominated for his performance in “The Serpent.”

Of the U.K.’s broadcasters, the BBC scored the most noms, boasting 30 across 24 categories, followed by Channel 4, who scored 28, Sky with 10 and ITV who scored 8.

BBC One, ITV and Sky Arts have all been nominated for the Channel of the Year award.

The awards, which will be in-person for the first time in two years, will take place on March 29 in London. Comedian Nish Kumar will host.

“Despite the unprecedented challenges the last two years have presented every single one of us, the sheer talent and amazing professionalism from U.K. creatives both in front of and behind the camera, has truly shone through,...

Russell T Davies’ It’s a Sin has been nominated six times for the UK’s prestigious Broadcasting Press Guild (Bpg) Awards next month, with Jeremy Clarkson, Olivia Colman and Stephen Graham also picking up nods.

Leads Olly Alexander, Callum Scott Howells and Lydia West are nominated in Best Actor and Best Actress respectively for the Channel 4/HBO Max drama, with Davies recognized in Best Writer, the show itself picking up a Best Drama Series (+4 episodes) nod and the quartet of young residents of the show’s ‘Pink Palace’ competing for the Bpg Breakthrough Award alongside Starstruck’s Rose Matefeo and We Are Lady Parts’ Nida Manzoor.

It’s a Sin, which follows LGBTQ+ characters during the UK’s 1980s Aids epidemic and is produced by Red Production Company, has already been recognized at a raft of awards ceremonies.

The five-parter will compete in the Best Drama Series (+4 episodes) category...

Marco Bellocchio Honorary Prize

The 2022 edition of the Visions du Réel film festival in Nyon, Switzerland, will present its Honorary Award to Italian filmmaker Marco Bellocchio. The Fists In My Pocket and The Traitor director will attend the festival to pick up his prize. He will host a masterclass during the event, while a retrospective of his films will be screened, as well as his new documentary. “Marco Bellocchio exercises impressive liberty and modernity to combine registers of images and genres, moving between fiction and documentary, between the intimate and the collective. We are extremely happy and delighted to pay tribute to an indisputable master of contemporary filmmaking, as well as to a body of work which, from the very first films, has demonstrated dazzling modernity, and is brooding, subversive and audacious, formidably eclectic,” said Emilie Bujès, Artistic Director of Visions du Réel.

The prize will be awarded during the 53rd edition of the fest,...

Exclusive: Expectation, the British production company behind series such as David Schwimmer comedy Intelligence and Amazon’s Clarkson’s Farm, has posted its first profit since launching in 2017.

This comes despite the Covid-19 pandemic “severely disrupting” a number of its productions.

The company, which was set up by former Endemol chief Tim Hincks and ex-ITV content chief Peter Fincham, posted a profit of £438,145 in the twelve months to 31 March 2021, a significant improvement on the £2.9M loss that it incurred in the previous year.

This profit was posted from revenues of £34.8M, a 23% increase from the prior year’s figure of £28.3M.

The directors of the company, in its financial statements to Companies House, said that they were “delighted” with the results, during what it called a “difficult” year.

“The group’s upward trajectory continues, having reached profit in its fourth year of trading as originally planned; when we signed the 2020 accounts last year,...

Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” and Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” were the big winners at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ (BAFTA) TV Craft Awards on Monday.

BBC/HBO’s “I May Destroy You” won the key awards of director, fiction, editing, fiction and writer, drama. BBC/Amazon’s “Small Axe” had the most wins with five BAFTAs, including for make up and hair design, costume design, production design, photography and lighting, fiction and for scripted casting.

The BBC’s “Lee Miller – A Life on the Front Line” and “His Dark Materials” won two BAFTAs each.

“Small Axe” had nine nominations, while “I May Destroy You” had five. Netflix’s popular Royal drama “The Crown” was shut out, despite having six nominations going in.

The ceremony was broadcast live on BAFTA’s social channels and hosted by actor and writer Gbemisola Ikumelo (“Famalam”).

The Television...

Shane Allen, BBC’s director of comedy, is leaving the broadcaster to team with recently departed head of comedy commissioning Kate Daughton to launch a new outfit.

Boffola Pictures Limited will specialize in scripted comedy and comedy drama and is backed by “Les Miserables” producer Lookout Point.

The BBC will begin recruitment immediately for a new director of comedy. Allen is due to leave in August. Kate Phillips, director of BBC entertainment, will oversee new scripted comedy commissioning decisions while Allen oversees ongoing productions and works on the BBC Comedy Association’s inaugural plans for a city of comedy, the appointment of a Young People’s Comedy Laureate and the TV re-boot of The New Comedy Awards.

At BBC Comedy, Allen commissioned a range of hits including “Fleabag,” “Man Like Mobeen,” “Detectorists,” “Peter Kay’s Car Share,” “This Country,” “The Young Offenders,” “Upstart Crow,” “Inside Number 9” and “Famalam.” During his tenure,...

Hit BBC shows “I May Destroy You,” “Small Axe” and “Normal People” lead the nominations at the U.K.’s Royal Television Society (Rts) 2021 program awards.

Michaela Coel’s “I May Destroy You” scored three nominations, as did Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe.” “Normal People” leads Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal were nominated in the acting categories.

The BBC leads the field with 40 nominations across the 28 categories, followed by Channel 4 with 17 and Sky with 12.

The nominations were announced on Tuesday via livestream by British television presenter Ore Oduba, and the winners will be announced March 16 at a ceremony streamed live on the Rts website, hosted by “The Masked Singer” judge Jonathan Ross.

Chair of the awards, Big Talk Productions CEO Kenton Allen, said: “The standard of entries has been outstanding and demonstrated the breadth of high-quality content that has informed, entertained and kept audiences going through what has been such a uniquely difficult time.

Expectation, the UK producer behind Sky’s David Schwimmer comedy Intelligence, has optioned comedian Njambi McGrath’s memoir on her upbringing in Kenya.

The BBC Studios-backed company will reimagine Through The Leopard’s Gaze for television after it was part of publisher Jacaranda Books’ mission to publish 20 black British writers in one year.

The book tells the story of McGrath’s journey from a disturbing upbringing in Kenya to her outwardly settled life in London, along the way exploring the brutality of colonialism. Rights were acquired from Emily Sweet Associates.

McGrath said: “I am very excited, humbled and grateful for the opportunity to be working with Expectation. From our earliest conversations, their vision and enthusiasm for retelling my story was apparent.”

It is the latest scripted project to emerge from Expectation. Sky has lined up a second season of Intelligence, while BBC comedy Alma’s Not Normal was taken to series in April.

Right now, good news often feels like gold dust, so hearing that Charlie Brooker will bring back his award-winning Wipe series for a special look at the state of things in lockdown is a bit like finding a freshwater lake after crawling through the desert on your hands and knees for a month, wailing “whyyyyy” the whole time. Perhaps Brooker is stood just at the water’s edge, wearing a crisp white toga. “Drink,” he gestures. Hoarsely, gratefully, we respond: “yes …yes.” Things have gotten weird in the first paragraph again.

Screenwipe has been missing from our screens since 2016, when Brooker started focusing much of his energy on Black Mirror, which has become one of Netflix’s most popular series. In this 30-minute lockdown special, tentatively called Antiviral Wipe, the writer has confirmed that he’ll also draw in regular contributors Philomena Cunk (Diane Morgan) and Barry Shitpeas (Al Campbell...

BBC Two has ordered a full series of Expectation comedy Alma’s Not Normal as part of a raft of comedy commissions, which also include a new episode of Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe.

Alma’s Not Normal was created and written by Sophie Willan, who plays Alma, a wild-child woman trying to get her life back on track following a recent breakup.

It was piloted earlier this month and earned rave reviews, with many critics calling on BBC Two to commission a full six-part series. Willan said she has been using the coronavirus lockdown as an opportunity to develop ideas for the show.

“I’ve been overwhelmed by the fabulous response...

“Black Mirror” creator Charlie Brooker is making a half-hour isolation special of his “Wipe” review series for the BBC, with the working title of “Charlie Brooker’s Antiviral Wipe.”

Before “Black Mirror,” Brooker rose to fame with the BBC “Wipe” review series, which began in 2006 with “Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe,” and went on to include “Newswipe with Charlie Brooker,” “Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe” and “Charlie Brooker’s Weekly Wipe.” The last episode of his annual “Wipe” review ran in 2016.

Last year, Brooker said he was too busy working on Netflix series “Black Mirror” to focus on “Wipe,” but the lockdown has clearly freed up some of his time.

The BBC said Brooker will be taking “a typically sharp look at life in lockdown, in a show made during lockdown.” The program will air on channel BBC Two.

As well as coverage of the crisis itself, Brooker will also be looking...