BBC

BBC journalist, Mastermind presenter and opera lover Clive Myrie didn’t pull any punches as he defended his employer in this year’s Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture, entitled “The BBC: Destroy at your peril”.

Myrie, who joined the BBC in 1987 as a trainee local radio reporter, laid out his reasons why the licence fee was a better way of funding the corporation than subscription. He stressed the importance of a trusted, impartial news service and the BBC’s universality at a time when notions of truth have become subjective and impartiality “a false God”.

The no holds barred, raw and open documentary will uncover the struggles the musician, actor and dad of three has experienced with drug and alcohol addiction. 

It was a battle that pushed him to the brink, and despite reaching dizzying heights of success as part of the band Busted, Willis was finding it hard to cope behind closed doors. 

Willis will look at the potential reasons behind his addiction and speak to other families, experts, counsellors and support groups to try and understand why some people become alcohol and drug dependent. 

James Nesbitt will return as DCI Tom Brannick in the upcoming six-part series, created and written by Chris Brandon. 

At the end of the last series the identity of legendary assassin Goliath was shockingly revealed to be Brannick.

So when the murder of a crooked accountant unravels a trail of greed that could expose Brannick’s hidden life as Goliath, he must become dangerously close to the accountant’s widow Olivia (Victoria Smurfit) to solve the riddle he left behind. 

Galloping inflation, strikes, oversized flares, platform boots, and suffocating heat. It’s almost as if we’re reliving the 1970s. And the perfect TV companion? Look no further than the hugely enjoyable and critically adored sci-fi cop series Life on Mars.  

Sam Tyler (John Simm), a by-the-book, impeccably liberal detective in noughties Manches­ter, is knocked unconscious by a speeding car while listening to David Bowie’s Life on Mars?… and wakes up, dressed in big collar, Chelsea boots and leather jacket, in 1973.  

The series will explore the legacy of one of Ireland’s most shocking and dark scandals, the barbaric institutions known as ‘The Magdalene Laundries’.

Lorna Brady (Ruth Wilson) lives in the fictional town of Kilkinure and awakens one day to find a dead woman in her house.  

With no memory of what has occurred, Brady doesn't know who the dead woman is and if she could be responsible for her death. 

Brady has suffered with extreme sleepwalking caused by the trauma of her time being incarcerated in Kilkinure Convent when she was 15. 

In total, 20 nations applied across all four nations of the UK. The applicants were asked to demonstrate how they would reflect Ukrainian culture to mark their win in 2022.

The seven cities were chosen based on criteria that determined which had the capacity, capability and experience to host an event of this scale and complexity.

The second and final stage of the selection process will see the cities asked to elaborate on their bids, and the Host City will be decided by the BBC in partnership with EBU (the Ukrainian Broadcasting Union) in autumn 2022.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the show and judges Craig Revel Horwood, Shirley Ballas, Motsi Mabuse and Anton du Beke will be seeing if the celebrities know their Quickstep from their Charleston. 

Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will return as hosts and four new professional dancers will join the series taking the total to 20, the show's biggest dancer line-up ever. 

Here are the first celebrities ready to put on their dancing shoes.

Beyond Paradise will follow the lives of Humphrey (Kris Marshall) and Martha (Sally Bretton) as they begin a new life together in charming, rural southwest England. 

Eager to escape the hustle and bustle of the city, Humphrey takes on the job of Detective Inspector in Martha’s childhood hometown. 

However, the couple soon discover that country life isn’t so quiet, with the town’s surprisingly high crime rate leading to Humphrey tackling a new and challenging case each week. 

After extensive consultation with the Ukrainian broadcaster, UA: PBC, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) decided that it wouldn’t be possible for next year’s event to take place in Ukraine.

As the UK came second in 2022 with Sam Ryder and his track Space Man, the EBU invited the BBC to host the 67^th edition of the competition.

Senorita 89 comes from showrunner Lucia Puenzo and explores the dangerous underworld of Latin America’s beauty pageant culture in the 1980s. 

Behind the smiles, beauty and bright lights, there is a dark and disturbing world of manipulation and abuse. 

The eight-part series follows promising beauty queens from all over Mexico who are taken to an ominous ranch in the middle of the forest, where they must stay for three months to be in with a chance to be crowned the next Miss Mexico.