HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEEB

UK PUBCASTER THE BBC CELEBRATED ITS 100TH BIRTHDAY IN 2022, at a time when traditional networks are being drowned out – financially and artistically – by international streaming platforms and the sheer weight of content now available to watch from around the world. But the importance of the BBC cannot be underestimated, in the past, present and the future. Where else would you find such an eclectic slate of acclaimed and award-winning dramas, beloved not just in the UK but around the world? Titles such as Line of Duty, Sherlock, I May Destroy

You, Fleabag, Small Axe, Peaky Blinders (pictured), Gentleman Jack and Happy Valley would make any must-watch list – and they’re just some of the most recent series. Go back further and you can find I, Claudius, Doctor Who, Our Friends in the North, Pride & Prejudice and Dennis Potter’s musical The Singing Detective. After 100 years, the BBC’s legacy should never be undersold, just like its future.

MAYBE IT’S BECAUSE OF THE WORLD CUP –IN FACT, IT PROBABLY IS – BUT THERE’S A NOTABLE NUMBER OF FOOTBALLBASED DRAMAS COMING TO AIR

While sport is notoriously difficult to recreate on screen, that hasn’t put off commissioners from ordering stories highlighting an often darker and murkier side of the beautiful game. First came The Window, which charts one summer in the life of a 17-year-old wunderkind who has gatecrashed the global stage, kickstarting a power struggle for control of his career and a share of his earnings from his first professional contract. Meanwhile, Klaus Steinbacher will star as German football legend Franz Beckenbauer in a film biopic called Kaiser (pictured). But most ambitious is Net, an interconnected web of series from Germany, Austria and Italy that each explore a different story, with characters that cross over between the different shows. Other series to watch include Sky Italia’s agentfocused The Great Game, Mexico’s de Cuervos, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes’ The English Game and Emmy favourite Ted Lasso, while Munich Games explores a threat against a match between Germany and Israel on the 50th anniversary of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

bacher nd Franz ed Der tious is The eries from ach that cross