BBC One orders second helping of Merlin

Shine-produced fantasy drama series Merlin has been renewed for a second season by BBC One (UK).

The second series was commissioned by Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC Drama commissioning and Jay Hunt, BBC One controller.

The show is distributed by FremantleMedia Enterprises, which has recently sold it to RTL (Germany), Canal+ (France) and MNET in South Africa. Fremantle says it has sold it into 112 territories in all.

Mediaset (Italy) and SVT (Sweden) are the next broadcasters to air Merlin and it will begin airing on December 15 and December 18 respectively.

US network NBC acquired the series and it is expected to air it early next year. In the UK the show had a Saturday evening slot.