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BBC Three has teamed up with Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures as the network makes a switch from a linear broadcast channel to an online first destination. The new service will feature brand new original British comedy, contemporary British drama, thought-provoking documentaries and distinctive current affairs programming all made for BBC Three’s 16-34 target audience.

The collaboration between BBC Drama and Idris Elba’s production company will deliver a series of short films from new writers featuring new on-screen talent working alongside established on-screen talent.

Damian Kavanagh, Controller of BBC Three, says: “New talent is at the core of BBC Three. We’re working with Idris Elba’s Green Door Pictures on a series of London-set drama shorts featuring chance encounters between two people. A co-development with BBC Drama in-house, these will focus on developing new and up-and-coming writing talent as well as giving opportunities for new actors to work with established talent."

Idris Elba added: “I’m looking forward to working with BBC Three and giving new writers and actors a chance to show what they can do."

The collaboration is one of a handful announced by BBC Three this morning, that includes a range of comedy, drama and documentary commissions and formats featuring new talent, new writers and new directors. These include:

– "Black Power." Dan Murdoch’s follow up to "KKK: The Fight For White Supremacy." This new documentary will see Dan revisit the USA and meet the Ku Klux Klan and Black Panther movements.
– "Love Triangle," a standalone serial of 8×8-minute films from "Life And Death Row." The films will follow a standalone story and be published at regular intervals alongside supporting documents, including witness statements, secret police recordings and crime scene photographs.
– Brand new contemporary drama "Clique" from writer Jess Brittain centered around two friends whose lives becoming increasingly complicated after starting university in Edinburgh.
– New short-form series "Life Hacks with Ben Hart," where he brings his magic to unsuspecting members of the public.
– New format "Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared." Alys Harte and Bronagh Munro investigate the real-life disappearance of a teenager 20 years ago.
– New Stacey Dooley documentaries on attitudes to sex and prostitution in Turkey, Brazil and Russia and a new short film about the New Year’s Eve attacks in Cologne.

Fiona Campbell, Head of Current Affairs at the BBC says: “We know young people want content that makes them think, and that’s exactly what we’ll continue to give them. Last year, our program on the Ku Klux Klan was the most watched documentary on BBC Three, and this year we’ll revisit race relations in the US when we follow the Black Liberation Movement. With brave and ambitious access, and the likes of Stacey and Reggie exploring the issues that matter to young people, we’ll keep thought-provoking, modern journalism and documentaries at the heart of BBC Three.”

Dan Murdoch, producer/director of Black Power, says: “I spent last summer with a resurgent Ku Klux Klan, but I also met counter protesters from the African American community, many of them chanting ‘Black Power’. When I discovered that some of these groups are arming themselves with shotguns and rifles, saying they have to patrol neighbourhoods to defend against white supremacist attacks and police brutality, and openly calling for armed revolution – I knew I needed to find out more.”

All BBC Three originals will be available via bbc.co.uk/bbcthree and through BBC iPlayer on connected TVs, set top boxes including Sky and Virgin, games consoles including Sony Playstation and Microsoft XBox, web browsers, native iOS, Windows and Android apps and BBC Red Button+. All BBC Three originals will be repeated on BBC One or BBC Two at a later date. BBC Three content will also be available on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Vine and Tumblr.