Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight 'developing university drama with BBC'
The drama will be based in a Birmingham university.
With an upcoming jam-packed slate of dramas coming out, which includes Netflix's All the Light We Cannot See, BBC's This Town and Disney Plus's A Thousand Blows, it's safe to say that Steven Knight is a series creator in demand.
But even in the midst of those upcoming releases, it seems that Knight has time to pen another brand new show for the BBC.
According to Deadline, the BBC are developing a series with Knight which will be based in a Birmingham university, and will be produced from Knight’s new Digbeth Loc Studios in the West Midlands, which opened a few months ago.
The series is yet to be titled and is in the early stages of development, but is reported to have been positioned as a returning show that could air during primetime.
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Exact details about the project are being kept under wraps for now, but it has been described as following "the lives of a group of young people at one of the country’s second-largest city’s five universities".
It has been said that Knight will be the lead writer on the drama, and will be joined in the writers' room by a range of other talents.
RadioTimes.com has approached the BBC for comment.
Knight, who hails from Birmingham, is perhaps best known for being the series creator behind Peaky Blinders, and this new TV production could bring a wealth of new opportunities to the city, especially after the news that Doctors has been cancelled after 23 years.
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The medical soap was shockingly axed earlier this month, with the reasons for doing so centring around the rising costs of programming and "super inflation in drama production".
In a statement from the BBC at the time, the broadcaster retained that they "remain fully committed to the West Midlands, and all of the funding for Doctors will be reinvested into new programming in the region".
As well as this upcoming project, Knight has worked on another Birmingham-based series, This Town, which has been written and executive produced by the SAS Rogue Heroes creator.
The show will focus on the Ska and Two-tone music scene of the '80s and, according to the synopsis, will be "set in a world of family ties, teenage kicks and the exhilarating music of a generation".
"This Town tells the story of a band’s formation against a backdrop of violence, capturing how creative genius can emerge from a time of madness," it continued.
"Both a high octane thriller and a family saga, This Town opens in 1981, at a moment of huge social tensions and unrest.
"Against this backdrop, it tells the story of a group of young people fighting to choose their own paths in life, and each in need of the second chance that music offers."
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Authors
Morgan Cormack is a Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering everything drama-related on TV and streaming. She previously worked at Stylist as an Entertainment Writer. Alongside her past work in content marketing and as a freelancer, she possesses a BA in English Literature.
