Written by on Nov 20, 2014. Posted in On Location

New Luther miniseries announced among BBC TV drama commissions

A host of new drama commissions has been announced by the BBC, many of which will be planning to film on location in the UK. The commissions include a new miniseries of the hit crime drama Luther, which will shoot in London.

"Ever since we said goodbye to John Luther on Southwark Bridge, there's hardly been a minute when I didn't wonder what happened next,” said Luther writer and series creator Neil Cross: “So I decided to find out. We're putting the band back together; Luther is coming back where he belongs. Back to the BBC. Back to London. And back to work."

A US version of Luther is in development with star Idris Elba involved as an executive producer.

Other BBC commissions announced include SS-GB, based on a novel by Len Deighton. The series will tell a story set in an alternate reality where the Germans won the Battle of Britain in 1940 and the Nazis now occupy London.

The UK’s TV tax credit is designed partly to keep high-end British productions like these filming in the UK, rather than heading to places like Eastern Europe as they did until only very recently. However, shoots are now jostling for space in and around London due to the limited studio resources on offer. Writer Tony Jordan recently told the Independent about the difficulty in finding a suitable UK filming space for his ambitious drama Dickensian, which requires a complex set build.

Also set in period London will be TV drama The Secret Agent, telling a story of spy espionage and terrorism in the 1880s. The BBC in fact has a history of recreating Victorian London in Ireland, having commissioned the first two series of crime drama Ripper Street for shoots in Dublin.

(Image: BBC)