A new schedule on the BBC World Service will include brand new arts and music programmes when it launches this autumn.
Longer factual series will explore stories in greater depth through a new strand titled ‘The Compass’. Each series will span several weeks and will “reflect something new and essential about the 21st century”. The first programmes will examine how the gap is growing between childhood and adulthood in communities around the world.
Future programmes will cover race relations in the United States, and popular BBC Radio 4 presenter Fi Glover will join technology entrepreneur Martha Lane Fox to look at social and technological changes around the world.
Artists, writers and reporters will contribute to ‘The Cultural Frontline’, a new arts programme in which correspondents will investigate the way in which culture “is responding to and changing the world they live in”.
Three new monthly programmes from BBC Music will join the existing Global Beats to form a weekly schedule. Singer and BBC 6 Music presenter Cerys Matthews will have her own show, BBC Music On The World Service With Cerys Matthews. Highlights of music documentaries and specials from across the BBC will be aired on Music Extra, whilst Radio 1’s Huw Stephens will showcase new music from the UK on BBC Introducing.
“News and current affairs remains the heart of the World Service, but there’s room for more breadth and depth – guiding listeners through a complex world and offering more culture and music – and our new schedule will deliver a richer mix of bold programmes and great talent to reflect the breadth of our listeners’ interests,” said Mary Hockaday, Controller of BBC World Service English.
In recent years the World Service has added rolling news and current affairs programming with Outside Source and The Fifth Floor. The ‘Top of the Pops’ name lives on as a weekly 50 minute music programme with interviews and new releases.