The BBC has unveiled a landmark series which will follow children with life threatening conditions through surgery which, quite literally, rebuilds their heads and faces.

Produced by Landmark Films, the series will go behind the scenes at John Radcliffe Hospital”s Craniofacial Unit in Oxford, one of only four centres in the UK licensed to carry out a particular type of complex surgery which dismantles the face and skull and refits them in a better shape. The team has a worldwide reputation but it’;s also a “one stop shop” combining surgery with psychological and counselling support for severely disfigured children and their families as well as speech and language therapy.

The series, My Child In Their Hands, shows the ground breaking and innovative surgery which transforms children’;s lives. Viewers will also meet adolescents having to deal with the self consciousness of the teenage years and young adults discussing how they came to terms with their appearance and people’;s reactions to it.

Executive producer for Landmark Films, Nicholas O’;Dwyer, says: “The work of the Craniofacial team is simply astonishing. Some children have been so severely disfigured by their condition that people would stop and stare in the street. Through the Oxford team’;s work, they undergo a transformation which means they wouldn’;t attract a second glance in the playground. Filming with them over the past year has been a privilege.”

My Child In Their Hands is in post-production and is due for transmission on BBC Two in the summer of 2011. It is directed by Monica Garnsey with executive producers Nick O’;Dwyer (Landmark) and Maxine Watson (BBC). International sales are handled by Passion Distribution.