Wednesday, February 13, 2013

BBC Commission More Saturday Night Fantasy Drama

It seems that with Doctor Who being moved about in the schedules at times and Merlin coming to an end at the end of last year, BBC1 have commissioned two new fantasy themed dramas that they're hoping to be worthy successors.


Announced this week was Atlantis, a thirteen episode series created by Merlin and Misfits writer/creator, Howard Overman and executive produced by Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy, the series will focus on the legendary underwater world, bringing to life the Greek myths as a young Jason heads for this world and finds himself doing battle with snake haired goddesses in a world built by drama. Filming for this series will begin in April with Morocco and Wales confirmed as locations for shooting. The series will air in the Autumn this year. Casting has yet to be confirmed but if this show is anything like Merlin, the guy playing Jason will probably spend most of the series without his shirt on.


The other series commissioned by BBC has been revealed as The Musketeers and will be co-produced with BBCAmerica. The series, based on the infamous book will run for ten episodes and is being spearheaded by Primeval creator, Adrian Hodge and will filming for the series has already begun, casting has yet to be announced and the show itself will not air on BBC1 until 2014. There's also some rumours that this show might be taking a note out of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's version of Sherlock with a modern version of the characters but this has yet to be confirmed.

So which one of these new shows appeals to you most - both, one or the other or neither? I am hoping that the writing is a lot tighter in both of these shows and that both manage to avoid some of the narrative pitfalls both Merlin and Primeval could have at times. Either way, following the wake of Merlin and  Being Human's recent cancellations, it's nice to see that genre television isn't completely dying on BBC nowadays.

Atlantis News: http://www.sfx.co.uk/2013/02/11/misfits-and-merlin-creators-combine-forces-for-the-bbcs-atlantis/
The Musketeers News: http://screenrant.com/three-musketeers-tv-series-bbc-america/

Atlantis will air on BBC1 from Autumn 2013 and The Musketeers will air in 2014.

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