To mark 100 years of the BBC in 2022, the Corporation has announced a bumper year of sports, events and landmark commissions for TV, Radio, and Online to inform, educate and entertain the nation, under the banner BBC 100.
The Love Box In Your Living Room with Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse will take a look at the BBC’s last 100 years.
Examined through the eyes of "Adam Adamant Curtis" and his brother "Richard Dimbleby Curtis", comedy The Love Box In Your Living Room, “charts the intertwined socio-litical history of the British and their BBC since its quasi-religious birth on that great day in 1922”. Mixing contemporary footage with “genuinely authentic made-up stuff”. The Love Box In Your Living Room is faithfully concocted by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.
The Love Box In Your Living Room is a Balloon Entertainment production for BBC Two. It is produced by Bradley Adams and executive produced by Harry Enfield and Balloon’s Bryan Elsley. Tanya Qureshi is the Commissioning Editor for BBC Comedy.
The programme will be part of a major BBC season that will also include specials of its biggest show. Strictly Come Dancing, Doctor Who, Top Gear, MasterChef, The Apprentice and Antiques Roadshow will all be marking the centenary in their own unique way.
Here’s One I Made Earlier (w/t) with former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq will explore and celebrate the very best of British Children’s Programming from the past 100 years. The programme will track content from the very first radio broadcast of Children’s Hour in 1922, via the iconic Magic Roundabout, right through to Saturday morning megahits such as Going Live.
BBC Three will return with a renewed focus on British drama with four series written by and starring some of the foremost new talent and voices the UK has to offer. In 2022 audiences can look forward to Superhoe, written by and starring Nicôle Lecky; a contemporary horror series from the Clarkson Twins set in Bolton titled Red Rose; emerging writer Ryan J Brown’s thriller Wrecked; and an adaptation of Sally Rooney’s award-winning debut novel Conversations with Friends.
On Radio 4 Past Forward, featuring historian Greg Jenner, will use a random date generator to alight somewhere in the BBC's vast archive. He will find a piece of audio from that day and use it as a starting point in a journey towards the future. In each episode Jenner will uncover connections through the people, places and ideas that link the archive fragment to Britain in 2022.
There will also be a Horrible Histories: BBC’s Big Birthday Bonanza! On Auntie’s Big Birthday, Horrible Histories celebrates the Corporation’s past century packed with fascinating facts and jokes. The first Director General, Lord Reith, reveals why he needed a postman’s help with his job application. We find out why the Queen’s Coronation made you the most popular house on the street if you had a TV, and how the launch night of BBC Two went awry, with not only a power cut, but also an escaped kangaroo!
Radio announcer Wilfred Pickles confounds Britain’s enemies with his Yorkshire accent, and how the creators of Doctor Who thought they were making a history programme. And from Bill and Ben to Tracy Beaker, Swap Shop to Blue Peter, how the BBC’s Children’s department has inspired the imagination of generations of kids.
Horrible Histories is made for CBBC and iPlayer by Lion Television. It was commissioned by BBC Children’s former Head of Content Cheryl Taylor. Executive Producers for Lion are Richard Bradley and Simon Welton, and the Commissioning Editor for the BBC is Melissa Hardinge.
The Love Box in Your Living Room with Harry Enfield & Paul Whitehouse, Thursday 27 October, BBC Two.
