River City ‘replacements’ lined up by the Beeb

With the end of River City, the Beeb are offering up shows with a more ‘international sales’ appeal it seems…

As twice-a-week soap River City is axed, the BBC in Scotland will still continue to air content created in the country, but unlike River City, this will also be offered up across the BBC in the UK with a chance of overseas sales.

Lindsay Salt, Director of BBC Drama:

“Audience habits are changing and we are responding to that with these plans for three brilliant new dramas made in Scotland. BBC viewers love truly authentic stories and we are committed to creating high-impact content from across the UK, so that we can better reflect and represent every part of the country. The success of the long running Shetland, coupled with the return of Vigil and Granite Harbour, is a testament to the strength of talent we have in Scotland and we look forward to seeing our three new shows come to life alongside these hugely popular returners.”

Counsels is an original high-stakes legal drama co-created by Scottish writers Bryan Elsley (The Crow Road, Skins) and BBC Writers’ Drama Room graduate Gillian McCormack. Set and filmed in and around Glasgow, Counsels follows five young lawyers who once trained together at one of Scotland’s elite law schools but are now scattered across the profession and find themselves facing each other in the courts of Glasgow.

Some will rise to the top, while others risk losing everything as their careers teeter on the edge when they lock horns in their biggest cases yet. The ambitious lawyers must navigate a legal battlefield where their friendships begin to fracture, love affairs crumble, and the fight for justice threatens to tear them all apart.

Counsels from Balloon Entertainment, will air across BBC One over eight episodes.

Grams is a darkly comic thriller created, written and directed by the RTS award-winning James Price (Dog Days, Boys Night), Grams is set in Springburn, Glasgow, where James was born and still lives.

Following the death of her beloved grandson Michael, widowed Glaswegian Thana becomes the target of a violent local gang, who Michael apparently crossed. Thana finds salvation in the form of Connor, a volatile friend of Michael’s with serious anger issues.

The drama will see Thana and Connor form an unlikely partnership, as they seek the truth of what really happened to Michael.

Grams produced by World Productions will broadcast on BBC One across six episodes.

The Young Team is the scripted debut from one of Scotland’s most exciting voices in literature, Graeme Armstrong.

The series is adapted from Graeme’s best-selling and award-winning debut novel of the same name and is set and filmed in North Lanarkshire. Fifteen-year-old Azzy Williams and his pals roam the streets of Airdrie on a Friday night, bottles of Buckfast in hand and techno playing from tinny speakers. Azzy is ready. Ready to smoke, pop pills, drink wine and fight. He longs to become fully initiated into local gang the Young Team Posse (YTP). But when Azzy, determined to prove himself, makes a bold move, a brutal gang conflict ensues with Azzy very firmly at its heart. The Young Team will follow Azzy on his journey from boyhood to manhood as he and his mates become postcode warriors in a toxic cycle that threatens to consume them. An unflinching look at the realities of addiction and gang violence, this ambitious series will tell a powerful, visceral story about the realities of life for young, disenfranchised people and the fight for a different future.

The Young Team will air on BBC Three over six episodes.

“These new commissions will build on the BBC’s strong track record in drama production in Scotland including award-winning series Guilt and Mayflies, and ratings hits Rebus and Nightsleeper. Richard Gadd’s new series Half Man has also started shooting in Scotland while the psychological thriller The Ridge starring Lauren Lyle will hit screens later this year. Filming on the new titles is expected from later this year and into 2026, with casting to be announced in due course.” – BBC