The two dramas will be produced by Mill Bay Media and BBC Studios

BBC Daytime has commissioned two new dramas to be produced out of the West Midlands, with the first, The Hairdresser Mysteries, filming this month across the region.

The 6 x 45′ drama is written by Jim Cartwright and produced by Mill Bay Media, a 53 Degrees Global company, in association with Night Train Media. The 1970s-set series stars Sally Phillips as Lily Petal, a high-end hairdresser who opts out of the competitive city scene to buy a small village hairdressers at the top of a cobbled street.

Before long Lily is at the hub of the residents’ secrets and revelations, and soon goes about solving the village’s many strange goings-on. The Hairdresser Mysteries is exec produced by Will Trotter and Oliver Kent for Mill Bay Media, with Herbert L. Kloiber and James Copp for Night Train Media.

Cartwright, Mark Catley and David Semple serve as writers on the series with Paul Gibson, Jermain Julien and Tracey Larcombe directing. Grainne O’Boyle will produce. Eccho Rights are distributing internationally

The second drama, The Detection Club (10 x 45′), is in development at BBC Studios Drama and is from lead writer Kit Lambert.

Set in 1930s London, the golden age/backdrop of detective fiction, the show imagines the coming together of iconic crime writers Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and G K Chesterton as a sleuthing trio. The Detection Club will film in 2026, produced out of Portland House, a regional hub and post-production facility in Digbeth recently opened by BBC Studios Drama Productions.

The drama is backed by BBC Studios, who are handling global sales.

Helen Munson, commissioning editor for BBC Daytime commented, “The BBC made a commitment to reinvest in new programming from the West Midlands, and these two new dramas are a result of this.

“The West Midlands has so much home-grown talent in the drama sector both on and off screen, commissioning the Detection Club and The Hairdresser Mysteries will offer more jobs to the region and showcase what the area has to offer. I’m excited to be working on these mysterious crime dramas which will be enjoyed by all ages of audiences at any time of the day.”

Long-running in-house BBC drama Silent Witness has moved its production base from London to The Bond in the creative quarter of Digbeth; MasterChef is now also based out of the West Midlands.

The region has grown hugely as a filming hub – apart from a hefty presence of productions companies making shows for the BBC, Steven Knight has vociferously backed his local area as having a large talent pool, and was the driving force behind Digbeth Loc. Studios, which recently hosted the Peaky Blinders feature The Immortal Man and drama This Town.

Acorn’s new adaptation of Richard Coles’ novel Murder Before Evensong also filmed around Stourbridge and Dudley in the first quarter of this year, supported by the West Midlands Production Fund.

Image: Sally Phillips for Eureka! museum by Eureka Museum is licensed under CC BY 3.0