The BBC is launching a new TV drama based on Grand Theft Auto

The BBC is launching a new TV drama based on Grand Theft Auto
David Scammell Updated on by

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The BBC is to launch a new BBC Two drama based on Rockstar’s open-world hit Grand Theft Auto.

The TV show will be broadcast as part of the company’s “season of coding-based programmes and activities”, although further details have yet to be revealed.

The programme forms part of the BBC’s new ‘Make it Digital’ campaign that will see the company provide one million mini-computers to children across the country as it aims to “make the UK more digital”.

“This is exactly what the BBC is all about,” said director-general Tony Hall, “bringing the industry together on an unprecedented scale and making a difference to millions.

“Just as we did with the BBC Micro in the 1980s, we want to inspire the digital visionaries of the future. Only the BBC can bring partners together to attempt something this ambitious, this important to Britain’s future on the world stage.”

UPDATE: Games and technology journalist Guy Cocker, who is helping develop the show, says that the drama will be centered around the “making of Grand Theft Auto”, and suggests that it will look back over the history of DMA Design and Rockstar’s rise to prominence.

UPDATE 2: The BBC has confirmed that the show will be a 90-minute-long drama that will “tell the story of arguably the greatest British coding success story since Bletchley Park – the triumph of the computer game Grand Theft Auto.

“Unlike many coding success stories, Grant [sic] Theft Auto was not created in Silicon Valley – it was the brainchild of a bunch of British gaming geniuses who had known each other since their school days. In autumn 2013 its latest iteration – GTA:V – earned $1bn in its first three days, becoming the fastest selling entertainment product in history.

“GTA offered gamers the chance to step into a fantasy world where they could behave like criminals, gun down rival gangsters and cops, hijack cars and venture deeper into an imaginary American gangland underworld.

“But the violent gameplay coupled with its outstanding success led to fierce opposition: from parents worried about children immersing themselves in such a violent world; from politicians, alarmed at the values it encourages; and above all from moral-campaigners, who have fought passionately to stop it.

“Grand Theft Auto tells the story of how the game was conceived and created and the subsequent fallout as various groups objected to its violent gameplay.”

A broadcast date for the show has yet to be confirmed.

Source: BBC