BBC Two and BBC Four to reshape arts and music content

Today, the BBC has announced a changes to its arts and music content, with the aim of driving bigger reach and impact across the UK.

Investment in BBC Two's art and music will be doubled over the next two years, while BBC Four will become the home of arts and music performance, and bring together collections from the archives. Eight major arts and music boxset series have been planned for BBC iPlayer.

The BBC also plans to open up its BBC local radio network to local arts organisations.

In order to drive forward these changes, arts and classical music TV commissioning will become fully integrated into BBC Content, under the leadership of Patrick Holland. It is hoped that this will bring new opportunities for collaboration and programming of scale.

In addition, two new leadership roles have been created: a new head of Arts and Classical Music, and a dedicated TV commissioner responsible for the BBC Proms and classical music on TV. 

Some of the new commissions accompanying the restructure are outlined below:

Blackface with David Harewood explores the origins of Blackface minstrelsy in early 19th-century America and how it crossed the Atlantic to Britain. This was entertainment as a delivery system for racist tropes and became the most popular form of entertainment of the Victorian era and took the music of enslaved people and turning it toxic. 

New profiles and portraits of a range of artistic figures of the 20th and 21st centuries such as Daniel Barenboim, Brian Catling, Delia Derbyshire, Kae Tempest and Andy Warhol among others across BBC Four and BBC Two.

Secrets of the Museum gives audiences access to the treasures of the Victoria & Albert Museum – still closed due to the pandemic. Newly-announced is a behind-the-scenes observational documentary about the children the Royal Ballet school in Richmond directed by the BalletBoyz; and a three-part series about the New York’s Metropolitan Museum 150th year which follows the challenges faced from the global pandemic, the recent presidential election and rising momentum of anti-racist movements. 

New opera productions for TV include Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine, a new film produced with the Royal Opera especially for audiences at home, conducted by Antonio Pappano. Britten’s Turn of the Screw is filmed on location at London Wilton’s Music Hall, directed by Selina Caddell and Dom Best and produced by Eliza Thompson and OperaGlass Works.  

Also confirmed today is the Final of BBC Young Musician of the Year 2020 in May, delayed and reorganised as  result of the pandemic, as well the return of  BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in June and The Leeds International Piano Competition in September.