BBC One Commissions New Drama

BBC One has commissioned a new drama by Kay Mellor OBE.

The six-part series, 'Love, Lies and Records', will be set in Leeds and follows Registrar Kate Dickinson as she tries to juggle her personal life with the daily dramas of births, marriages and deaths, and the impact they have on her.

After a promotion to the top job of Superintendent, Kate finds herself torn by the endless responsibilities of being a modern working mother. Her daughter is hiding suspicious messages on her mobile, her son hates her because she has bought him the wrong trainers and her stepson has turned up unannounced to stay.

As she tries to hold her work, life and relationship together, things go from complicated to impossible when a disgruntled colleague threatens to expose a secret from her past. The series explores how women in particular have to juggle their lives.

Kate has reached the top of her profession but with everything she has worked for in jeopardy, can she sustain herself when it's not just her job that's on the line?

Kay Mellor said: "I'm delighted to be doing a new series for the BBC. This has been cooking in my brain for quite a while and it feels like the right time to put it on the screen. The idea came to me when I was registering my mother's death at Leeds Town Hall, closely followed by a friend's wedding in the very same place. I remembered registering the birth of both of my daughters there too, and I realised that the Register Office and registrars really are at the very heart of life. It's a place of laughter, tears and great drama."

Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, added: "The genius that is Kay Mellor puts one woman at the centre of her new BBC One series, and brilliantly captures contemporary British life as she juggles a complex personal life with a world of births, marriages and deaths."

Written by Kay Mellor OBE, the 6x60' series will be produced by Rollem Productions. The executive producers are Kay Mellor for Rollem Productions and Elizabeth Kilgarriff for the BBC. 'Love, Lies and Records' has been commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Director of BBC Content, and Lucy Richer, Acting Controller of Drama.

www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre

(JP)