In the past year, BBC1 has aired a string of “dark dramas” such as The Fall, Apple Tree Yard and Three Girls, but a senior executive at the corporation has said it is time to tone down the violence and commission more “inspiring stories” instead.
Piers Wenger, the controller of BBC drama commissioning, said he was keen to air a more upbeat sort of programme.
“I think there is an awful lot of very dark drama across all channels and I would love to see some more inspiring stories. So I would love a Sunday night show which examines heroism and what it means to be a hero. I would love to be pitched more ideas that take us into entertaining worlds – worlds that might even be aspirational.”
But his pitch for new type of television was somewhat undermined by a BBC announcement revealing a new commission, The Barking Murders, based on the crimes of the serial killer Stephen Port, who met his male victims on gay dating apps, telling the story from the point of view of the victims’ families.
Recently, BBC1 has also shown The Fall, starring Gillian Anderson as a detective in protracted pursuit of a serial killer; Three Girls, based on grooming and child sexual abuse in Rochdale; and Apple Tree Yard, which featured a controversial rape scene and murder plot.
Wenger said he was excited about two forthcoming aspirational BBC dramas, The Split and Press. The Split is about a group of female divorce lawyers and has been written by Abi Morgan, whose credits include The Hour and The Iron Lady. It stars Nicola Walker, Meera Syal and Stephen Mangan.
Press will track the fortunes of a tabloid and a broadsheet newspaper as they try to recover from phone-hacking scandals and the rise of digital rivals. It has been created by Mike Bartlett, the writer of Doctor Foster.
Asked to clarify his comments, Wenger said: “I think there has to be a mix. Sometimes we need to go to very dark places to take stories apart to understand the world and understand the way the world is changing around us, but we need a better mix.”
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s director of content and Wenger’s boss, attempted to expand on his comments by saying they did not mean the broadcaster would no longer show hard-hitting television. Pointing to The Barking Murders and other upcoming crime dramas, Moore said: “We will continue to do dark, complex pieces that really challenge and are provocative.”
Wenger became the BBC’s drama chief last November after leaving his role as head of drama at Channel 4. He was previously the executive producer of Doctor Who.
He told his audience at the Edinburgh International TV festival that the corporation did not ask Chris Chibnall, the new showrunner on Doctor Who, to make the Time Lord a woman for the first time. He said it was Chibnall’s own decision to bring in Jodie Whittaker, with whom Chibnall had previously worked on Broadchurch.
“Chris has a very, very clear sense of where he wants to take the show and a very clear sense of the qualities that he is looking for in his Doctor, and Jodie fitted with that,” Wenger said.
“Obviously he had a relationship with her from Broadchurch. But she read for the part and auditioned for it and she came back a few times. She herself has a very clear sense of the point of having a female Doctor and what she wants to do with that role. I think she will make her unexpected but iconic.”
Moore refused to be drawn into a row about another high-profile TV show, the Great British Bake Off. Moore was part of the BBC team that could not agree a deal with Love Productions, the maker of the amateur cooking competition, to keep it on BBC1.
Instead, the new Bake Off series will air on Channel 4 from next Tuesday, after the BBC’s rival signed a three-year, £75m deal.
Moore said she “felt very responsible for licence fee payers’ money”, adding: “At the end of the day I can’t put all my eggs in one basket.”
Despite the loss of Bake Off, Moore said BBC1 was in a strong position. The channel has its highest audience share in a decade and is the most-watched channel among 16- to 34-year-olds. More young people watched Planet Earth 2 than the X Factor final on ITV.
