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“Hot Flush,” the new show from BAFTA-winning “Happy Valley” creator Sally Wainwright, is one of several series greenlit by the BBC.

A six-part drama from ”Doctor Foster” producers Drama Republic, “Hot Flush” centers on the lives of five women of a certain age who come together to create a makeshift, butt-of-the-joke punk-rock band in order to enter a talent contest, but when they rehearse together they suddenly discover that they have a lot more to say than they ever imagined, and this is the way to say it.

The BBC has commissioned also “Virdee,” a six-part detective series based on A.A. Dhand’s bestselling crime novels and starring Sacha Dhawan (“Doctor Who”), from newly formed production company Magical Society, headed up by Paul Trijbits (“Jane Eyre”).

The Bradford-set series introduces Detective Harry Virdee (Dhawan), a Bradford cop disowned by his Sikh family for marrying Saima, who is Muslim. Virdee struggles with the abandonment,...

Exclusive: Black British culture is reaching a “sweet spot” and creatives no longer have to move to the U.S. to achieve stardom, according to the creators of BBC comedy-thriller Black Ops.

Speaking exclusively to Deadline as BBC Studios shops the show at the London TV Screenings, creator and producer Akemnji Ndifornyen said cultural touchstones such as Netflix’s Top Boy are “accessible to our American cousins like never before.”

“Black British culture is reaching this really sweet spot,” said Ndifornyen, who played Mr Fergusson in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit. “[Americans] now understand that we’re not just ‘tea and crumpets’ but can really subvert their expectations.”

Alongside fellow Black Ops creator Gbemisola Ikumelo and star Hammed Animashaun, Ndifornyen branded the “one in, one out” Black talent experience in UK TV a thing of the past, partly because “we can go to the U.S. and come back with...

Eis schemes could come back into favour as two producers win significant court cases against tax authorities.

UK funding mechanism Enterprise Investment Scheme (Eis) could re-emerge as a viable tool for low-budget independent film financing following two courtroom victories by film companies against the UK tax authority, Hm Revenue and Customs (Hmrc), which had been trying to clamp down on the practice.

Separate tribunal judges each ruled in favour of Inferno Films Ltd and Cry Me A River Limited, and against Hmrc, in two recent First Tier Tribunal Tax Chamber cases.

Eis is a venture capital business designed so companies...

BBC Orders Comedy-Thriller ‘Black Ops’

BBC Comedy has commissioned new comedy-thriller series Black Ops created by Famalam actors Gbemisola Ikumelo and Akemnji Ndifornyen and writing duo Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woof (Click and Collect). The six-part (6×30) series, which will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in 2022, follows the story of Dom and Kay, who join the Met Police in the hope of cleaning up their community but are unwittingly thrust into the murky world of deep cover infiltration as they become part of a powerful criminal enterprise. But for the duo, it quickly becomes more of a fiasco than Donnie Brasco. Series was commissioned by BBC head of comedy Tanya Qureshi and is produced by Ndifornyen and Josh Cole, the exec producer for BBC Studios Productions. Gregor Sharp is the commissioning editor for the BBC and BBC Studios will distribute the series internationally. Casting details are expected to be announced shortly.

Hello Ladies star and The Office co-creator Stephen Merchant is teaming up with People Just Do Nothing’s Asim Chaudhry in a cross-country comedy for BBC One. The pair are to star in Click & Collect, featuring them as two mismatched neighbors driving across the UK to pick up the one toy that will make a little girl’s Christmas dreams come true.

The 60-minute special is written by Witless’ Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woolf and directed by The Inbetweeners’ Ben Palmer. It is produced by BBC Studios and Mondo Deluxe. Merchant said, “Every year, my family watch the big Christmas TV specials and my dad falls asleep half way through. This year, I’m very excited to be starring in a big Christmas TV special that my dad can fall asleep half way through.” Chaudhry added, “I’ve been a huge fan of Stephen’s work for many years so...

A&E will offer a Stateside home to The Frankenstein Chronicles, a six-episode period mystery/crime drama commissioned by the UK’s ITV and produced by Rainmark Films.

RelatedUnforgettable Season 4 Premiere Date (on A&E!) Announced

Set in 1827 London, the miniseries follows Inspector John Marlott (Legends‘ Sean Bean) as he makes the horrific discovery that a child’s corpse is actually a grotesque assembly of human body parts.

Marlott commences a hunt for the person behind this abomination, taking him into the dark corners of Georgian London, an underworld of prostitution, drug smuggling, body-snatching, murder for profit and other vices.

Dangerous Odds

"The Wolf of Wall Street" actress Margot Robbie is poised to play Marisa Lankester in the upcoming "Dangerous Odds" which Andrea Berloff is adapting the script for.

Lankester is a young woman who became an insider atop the largest illegal sports betting organization in the U.S., she eventually became a victim of this dangerous world of corruption and ultimately escaped to now live in Switzerland. [Source: Deadline]

Ben-Hur

Moises Arias ("The Kings of Summer") has joined the cast of Timur Bekmambetov's historical epic "Ben-Hur" at MGM and Paramount Pictures. Jack Huston, Morgan Freeman, and Toby Kebbell also star in the film which begins shooting shortly in Europe.

Arias will play Gestas, a teenage Jewish zealot whose family has been murdered by the Romans, who is desperate to fight for his people’s freedom. [Source: THR]

Reagan

David Henrie ("The Wizards of Waverley Place") is set to play a young Ronald Reagan...

The cast of ITV's The Frankenstein Chronicles has been announced.

Sean Bean will star as Inspector John Marlott, who will pursue a terrifying foe through 1827 London, in what is described as a mix of the investigative and horror genres.

Joining Bean is Game of Thrones star Kate Dickie, who played Lysa Arryn on the HBO show.

The six-part period drama sees Marlott recruited by Home Secretary Robert Peel after an assembly of body parts is discovered, arranged in a bizarre attempt at a human form.

He soon finds himself tracking down a dangerous and unhinged killer.

Also appearing in the series will be Snatch star Robbie Gee, Cilla's Ed Stoppard, Anna Maxwell Martin, Charlie Creed-Miles, Elliot Cowan, Hugh O'Conor, Joe Tucker, Lalor Roddy, Patrick Fitzsymons, Richie Campbell, Ryan Sampson, Samuel West, Shaun Mason, Steve Wilson, Steven Berkoff, Stuart Graham, Tom Ward and Vanessa Kirby.

ITV director of drama Steve November...