Tent true, ennit ?

The risk-taking BBC drama department has announced four new commissions. Lady Chatterley's Lover (last seen on the BBC in 1993, in a four-part adaptation written and directed by Ken Russell, starring Sean Bean and Joely Richardson); The Go Between (the 1971 film starring Alan Bates and Julie Christie was last shown on BBC2 in January - a radio dramatisation was made by the BBC in 2012); An Inspector Calls (last BBC tv adaptation in 1982, starring Bernard Hepton; at least two BBC radio versions this century); and Cider With Rosie (filmed by the BBC in 1971, adapted by Hugh Whitemore, starring Rosemary Leach; Carlton TV made a version in 1998, adapted by John Mortimer, starring Juliet Stevenson)

The director of Cider With Rosie is to be Philippa Lowthorpe, who fulfilled the same role on the yet-to-be-grasped-by-many BBC version of Jamaica Inn.  Every word will be crystal-clear.

0900 Friday update: Here's a strong piece from Daily Mail columnist Ephraim Hardcastle, published just before 2.00am this morning.

The BBC TV Drama department, under fire for its barely audible Jamaica Inn adaptation, has four other projects on the go – LP Hartley’s The Go-Between, DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls and Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie. Each work has previously been adapted by the BBC for radio or TV. And The Go-Between, adapted by Harold Pinter, became a feature film starring Julie Christie and Alan Bates in 1971. 

Has the BBC run out of original ideas? My source there says former BBC1 controller Peter Fincham – given the push in 2007 with a £500,000 payoff and subsequently leading an ITV resurgence, which included the hit Downton Abbey – is much missed.