Here at The Knowledge HQ we have been keeping our ears to the ground at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, on the lookout to bring you updates of shiny new commissions and programme developments.  

This year we were very happy to see that nearly all of the new commissions announced officially by the channel controllers were projects that we had already listed on Production Intelligence, keeping our subscribers several steps ahead.

There was a real buzz surrounding a few standout “new” titles here, with a groundswell of excited chatter coming from the telly folk.

So here is a brief look at some of the drama titles causing a stir, along with some trumpet-blowing reminders from us about where and when you (could have) heard about them first:

BBC One announced three big dramas, all of which have been listed on PI for some time. The standout one of these in terms of the delegates’ talk around the venue was Russell T Davies’ A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a feature-length special from BBC Cymru Wales from executive producer Brian Minchin. This intriguing production was first mentioned by us on PI on 3 July…

Another project making the headlines here was The Making of Dad’s Army (w/t) with some great casting news emerging such as John Sessions lining up to play Arthur Lowe and Julian Sands coming on board as John Le Mesurier. We’ve been excited about it since 12 August, when the drama first appeared on PI along with details of the crucial hires including producer, production designer, production manager, location manager and casting director…

Other major scripted productions at the centre of discussions at the festival included The City and The City (on Pi from 29 January 2015); Pyramid Women (PI: 3rd July 2015) Stop! In the Name of Love (PI: 13 January 2014); Mum (PI: 22 April 2015); Steve McQueen’s new drama (PI: 10 January 2014).

And we haven’t even started on non-drama trumpet-blowing yet.

 

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Russell T Davies photo courtesy of Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images