BBC commissions two new dramas from the West Midlands
11 September 2025
Both dramas will provide new opportunities to support skills and boost talent in the region to grow authentic voices and stories
The BBC has commissioned two new drama series for BBC iPlayer and Daytime from the West Midlands.
The Hairdresser Mysteries is written by Jim Cartwright and produced by Mill Bay Media, a 53 Degrees Global company, in association with Night Train Media. The Detection Club is from lead writer Kit Lambert, produced by BBC Studios Drama Productions.
Mill Bay Media developed The Hairdresser Mysteries with support from the West Midlands IP Fund. Other recipients of the fund include Threewise Entertainment which has recently announced Bagpuss is coming to the region and Full Fat TV’s A Yorkshire Pub with Jon Richardson.
The two new commissions demonstrate the BBC’s commitment to re-investing all of the Doctors spend into new scripted programming in the West Midlands. Both dramas will provide new opportunities to support skills and boost talent in the region to grow authentic voices and stories.
The BBC is actively working with partners in the Midlands, including the West Midlands Combined Authority and Create Central to grow its investment in the region over the coming years and increase its economic impact further as part of the BBC’s Across the UK strategy.
BBC Studios Drama Productions, who produce titles including Father Brown, Silent Witness and Shakespeare and Hathaway has also recently opened Portland House, a regional hub and post-production facility in Digbeth where the Detection Club will be produced. This work includes comprehensive training initiatives led by BBC Studios Drama Productions, which recently won Workplace Learning Champion at the West Midlands Adult Learning Awards. Training opportunities have included 54 placements on West Midlands based productions, as well as a Short Films Project in partnership with BBC Drama Commissioning and the West Midlands Combined Authorities Careers Hub.
The Hairdresser Mysteries is an original, homegrown drama created by Jim Cartwright (Coronation Street 2016, The Afternoon Play 2003, Little Voice 1998), and is a nostalgic nod to the 70s which sees a high-end hairdresser, Lily Petal, opt out of the competitive city scene to buy a small village hairdressers at the top of a cobbled street. Everyone tells their hairdresser everything and soon she is at the hub of her new village’s secrets and revelations, and with her own brand of uncannily highly developed, hairdressing intuitive empathy and understanding, solves the village mysteries.
Filming for The Hairdresser Mysteries will begin this September across the West Midlands and will see Sally Phillips take the lead-role of Lily Petal. Will Trotter (Father Brown, Sister Boniface Mysteries) and Oliver Kent (Sanditon, The Burning Girls,) act as executive producers for Mill Bay Media, with Herbert L. Kloiber (The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Fallen) and James Copp (Catch Me A Killer, This Time Next Year) for Night Train Media. Jim Cartwright, Mark Catley and David Semple serve as writers on the series with Paul Gibson, Jermain Julien and Tracey Larcombe directing. Grainne O’Boyle (Doctors) will produce.
The West Midlands IP Fund was launched in July 2024 and is supported by the West Midlands Combined Authority and Create Central, and delivered by Creative UK, providing development funding in the region.
