BBC director of television Alan Yentob has signalled his desire to move the corporation upmarket in the face of ITV's ratings surge.

Speaking at the launch of BBC 1 and 2's£320

BBC director of television Alan Yentob has signalled his desire to move the corporation upmarket in the face of ITV's ratings surge.

Speaking at the launch of BBC 1 and 2's£320 million spring and summer schedule on Monday (22 March), Yentob said his networks had to 'thicken the plot' and 'remind people of what the BBC is there to do'.

He added: 'Today, in television, to be popular is good, but it isn't good enough. The challenge is far more complex. The BBC needs to thicken the plot - to cross the threshold of people's lives and engage with them on new levels and in new ways.'

Yentob said Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, watched recently by more than 19 million viewers, was 'a good game', but not the BBC's game.

He reiterated that BBC 1's Nine O'Clock News would stay put despite worries within Television Centre over its ability to deliver audiences at the 21.30 junction (Broadcast, 5.3.99).

Yentob said: 'The BBC cannot forsake the news in peaktime and it never will. We will always have news at the heart of the schedule.'

Highlights of the spring and summer schedule include Tony Marchant's version of Great Expectations for BBC 2; Lucy Gannon's new BBC 1 drama, Hope & Glory, starring Lenny Henry as the headmaster of a secondary school; and The Dark Room, BBC 2's latest Minette Walters adaptation.

Factual fare includes Michael Buerk presenting BBC 1's Tobacco Wars, a personal journey through a century of smoking; The Planets, a new BBC 2 peaktime science series; and an Omnibus special on film-maker George Lucas.

Jonathan Ross will host a new weekly BBC 1 gameshow, It's Only TV ... But I like It, while sitcoms Roger Roger and Kiss Me Kate return to BBC 1.

Looking further afield, BBC 1 controller Peter Salmon said he was reviewing Saturday night peaktime following the decision to axe Noel's House Party.

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