This autumn, BBC2 is set to screen a season of programmes on Saturday nights dedicated to arts and culture, including a full-length feature film by the BalletBoyz and a behind-the-scenes film about Christie’s auction house. Utilising one of the most popular television-viewing nights, the channel will be competing for the Saturday night audience with this new season of culture, taking on a new stance.
With the focus of the channel on arts – including poetry and dance – the channel will be up against programmes such as The X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing and Casualty. Until now, the channel has aired programme repeats, now looking towards broadcasting about poetry, dance and the arts generally, with a large helping of culture alongside. The channel aims to be the most creative on television, with the arts central to the channel’s mission. It aims to be an alternative to the light entertainment battle between BBC1 and ITV.
BBC2’s Saturday night season began on 1 October with an evening of poetry and spoken word-themed programmes, and included the performance artist Kate Tempest. Tempest merges hip-hop, poetry and theatre, and gave a live rendition of her album, Let Them Eat Chaos, from the Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley, London. The channel will therefore be a place where audiences can come to find out about the world, be it complex, detailed or a specialism.
Additionally aired will be documentaries and performances, but without arts magazine and review programmes. Other commissions include a first full-length feature film by dance company BalletBoyz, telling the stories of young soldiers working to demonstrate the futility of war through movement. The season will continue until Christmas, when Alan Bennett’s Diaries, a programme following the 82-year-old writer around over the course of a year, will be shown.