New Year, New Dramas For Daytime TV

Jay Hunt, Controller, BBC Daytime, is expanding the schedule's drama offering for 2007 with three new high-quality single dramas for BBC One which continue BBC Daytime's recent tradition of attracting big-name talent to its drama output.

These new programmes build on the success of the critically-acclaimed and award-winning Afternoon Plays, a fifth series of which airs on BBC One later this month.

Later this year the occasional Director's Debut series returns with Cutting It star Sarah Parish as a first-time director of a play produced for BBC One by BBC Birmingham.

Baby Boom (working title) is the poignant story of two couples who find that starting a family is more complicated than they first thought…

A documentary accompanying charting Parish's enthralling journey as she switches roles is being made by independent production company Maverick.

Meanwhile, Leopardrama has been commissioned to dramatise Andy McNab's stunning action thriller The Grey Man.

Starring Olivia Colman (That Mitchell & Webb Look, Green Wing), Daisy Donovan (Daisy Does America), Billy Murray (EastEnders) and Daniel Ryan (The Government Inspector) and directed by Declan O'Dwyer (Robin Hood) it tells the story of a man driven to an extreme course of action as he attempts to escape the humdrum of his respectable but boring life.

The Grey Man was originally a Quick Read written by McNab as part of the BBC's RAW (Reading and Writing Campaign) and will be shown on World Book Day, 1 March.

And Bloodlines is a powerful contemporary drama from independent Resource Base about family secrets, the search for identity and the relationship between nature and nurture.

Written by Malcolm Campbell, and produced by Hilary Durman of Bafta-winning Southampton-based indie Resource Base, Bloodlines is commissioned by BBC Daytime in collaboration with BBC Learning.

Jay Hunt said: "I am delighted we are expanding the range of our drama in daytime with a series of compelling one-off plays.

"With Doctors and the afternoon plays, these new dramas make BBC One daytime the place for strong original writing and performance."