Wild Boy

New BBC tv drama boss Piers Wenger has revealed a slate of new commissions, saying "I want us to make our decisions based on an instinct of ideas. The biggest risks deliver the biggest hits and we’re here to be an antidote to commercial broadcasting with risky commissions.”

Risks include new versions of Little Women, The War of the Worlds, Black Narcissus, a six-parter from Stephen Poliakoff, a three-parter written by Russell T Davies and directed by Stephen Frears, and an Andrew Davies take on Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy.

Piers (£240k pa) also announced a new structure to support him in taking all these risks: "My new structure has bolstered the commission team to ensure greater plurality of taste and vision; they are the tastemakers who have the right palate to champion creative risks and diverse ideas".

Lucy Richer (£170k pa) has been appointed Senior Commissioning Editor, England.
Elizabeth Kilgarriff made Senior Commissioning Editor, England and Scotland, taking an expanded role for Scotland as well as England.
Gaynor Holmes becomes Commissioning Executive for Scotland, based in Scotland, reporting to Kilgarriff.
Mona Qureshi, former Co-Head of Development at The Ink Factory, joins the BBC as Commissioning Editor for England.
Christopher Aird appointed Commissioning Editor, Wales and Continuing Drama.
Tommy Bulfin joins the BBC as Commissioning Editor, Northern Ireland from New Pictures
Ben Irving hired in the newly created role of Head of Drama Development. He joins from David Heyman’s Heyday Films, where he was a Development Executive.
Anne Edyvean will become the New Writing Associate, Drama and continues as Head of the BBC Writersroom.