Outgoing boss announces new BBC Three series

UK digital youth-skewed channel BBC Three has ordered three new formats.

From the BBC’s own production department there will be a 6x30mins variety show, Nick Helm’s Heavy Entertainment, in which the titular host will explore weighty issues and set the world to rights.

Lion TV is making dating show Sexy Beasts. It was piloted earlier this year and is now being taken to series.

The show explores whether true love can blossom based on character alone, by using high-end Hollywood prosthetics to completely disguise the identity of people who then go on dates with each other.

Endemol’s Tiger Aspect, meanwhile, will make a half-hour pilot of hybrid comedy, entertainment and murder mystery show Murder In Successville. Set in a fictional town full of celebrities, it will tell the story of a spate of celeb murders.

The programming announcement was made by channel controller Zai Bennett who, in the wake of the news that BBC Three will move to an online service, recently announced he is leaving the UK pubcaster for its commercial pay TV rival BSkyB.