The launch of new current affairs strands will be the focus of BBC2's winter slate while BBC1 will prop up its season with a controversial and hard-hitting drama about the far right.
BBC2 controller Jane Root has commissioned two current affairs strands, a follow-up to What the World Thinks of America and a major documentary on the Broadwater Farm riots.
If will use drama and talking heads to investigate major world issues and scenarios. The first programme will focus on energy, and ask what would happen if the national grid went down, while other shows will look at ageing and inequality.
This World is to take over from Correspondentas BBC2's flagship foreign affairs strand. The strand is to launch with Michael Buerk's return to Ethiopia 20 years after his first report on the region's devastating famine.
What the World Thinks of God will follow the format of the show on America and poll 10,000 people in 10 countries around the world on their thoughts on God and religion. A co-production with 10 foreign broadcasters, it will attempt to show up global differences on the subject.
Roger Graef's indie Films of Record will make the special on the Broadwater Farm riots in 1985 - which led to the death of PC Keith Blakelock - and will include interviews with both the police and rioters.
On BBC1, controversial drama England Expectsheads the£177m winter slate. The piece will feature Steven Mackintosh as a responsible family man who begins to lose his grip on reality and is seduced back to his far right roots.
Other drama includes The Deputy, about a deputy prime minister; a drama based on the 1973 Bakewell cemetery murder; Hustle, from indie Kudos, a new drama following a team of parapsychologists who investigate extraordinary circumstances surrounding ordinary people. Auf Wiedersehen, Petalso returns.
BBC1 will also take part in the Taking Careseason of programmes on children in care, due to air in February, with documentaries About a Child, which looks at the childhoods of young people growing up in care, and After Care, which explores the legacy of care.
A special day of programmes on debt leads current affairs while a new weekly interactive quiz - Don't Get Mad Get Even- aims to replicate the success of Test the Nation.
In comedy, Amanda Holden and Jamie Theakston team up in Mad About Alicewhile Ben Miller and Sarah Alexander star in The Worst Week of my Life.
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