BBC lines up young adult sci-fi adaptation

BBC One is lining up an adaptation of young adult novel book series Noughts and Crosses, it emerge here in Scotland yesterday at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Levi David Addai will create the TV series, which will be based on Malorie Blacman’s books about a dystopian alternate history in which Earth’s land mass never broke apart an led to radically different racial politics to those that have developed in reality.

ITV Studios-owned Mammoth Screen is attached to produce, with Preethi Mavahalli and Damien Timmer executive producing.

BBC director of content Charlotte Moore (pictured) revealed the show’s commission during a panel session at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Also announced were Bodyguard, a six-part drama from Line of Duty producer World Productions; Scottish drama Trust Me, from StudioCanal-owned Red Production Company; and The Split, which The Hour creator Abi Morgan has written and Jane Featherstone’s fledgling Sister Pictures.

On the factual front, BBC One is getting six-part wildlife series Serengeti, which will employ tropes of television drama and utilise 360-degree shooting techniques. Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment and John Downer Productions are coproducing.

Stalkers, from Wild Pictures, will be a single documentary about a group that assists high-risk victims of stalking.

“It’s been another exceptional year for BBC One, achieving its best peak time share since 2008 and cementing its place as the nation’s most popular channel through a commitment to risk taking and innovation,” said Moore, who has twice this year been handed promotions at a restructured BBC content unit.

“Over the next year, BBC One will continue to challenge what mainstream television means and connect with an increasingly diverse UK.

“With audiences at the heart of every commission, I’m going to ensure BBC One keeps its finger on the pulse; entertaining an even bigger and broader audience with an unrivalled range of ambitious, world-class programmes that matter to modern Britain.”