Common, BB1

A NEW 90-minute Jimmy McGovern film Common is being made for BBC1. Following on from acclaimed dramas Hillsborough and Dockers, this fictional drama is shot with McGovern’s customary zeal to give voice to the unheard. The single drama examines the potential for injustice with the Joint Enterprise or Common Purpose rule.

The film opens as three young men hurry to a parked car, with 17-year-old Johnjo at the wheel, as they pile in and speed off in sheer panic following a fatal stabbing in the local pizza parlour. The lives of the four young men, the lives of those they love and the lives of the victim’s family will never be the same again. The belief that, if you tell the truth, you have nothing to fear is undermined as the mother of the victim, the mother of the suspect, and the policeman trying to navigate the truth, find themselves entangled in this law.

Joint Enterprise or Common Purpose is a 300-year-old legal doctrine that allows several people to be charged with a crime where they are not the primary offenders. It has been increasingly used in the past ten years to tackle crimes, often murder, which are deemed to be gangrelated.

The law suggests that the prosecution does not need to prove that a person took someone’s life or had intent to cause harm, but that they had knowledge or foresight of another person’s intent, or were present and failed to stop it.

Joint enterprise, explains McGovern, was first used in Britain’s courts a few hundred years ago to stop the aristocracy duelling. “If one duelist killed another then all involved in that duel (the seconds and the surgeons) were charged with murder. It worked. Britain’s aristocrats stopped duelling.

Now the law is being used against Britain’s youth. If someone dies in a fight and you’re involved in any way whatsoever, you could find yourself charged with murder. And, if you do, Heaven help you because the burden of proof required in joint enterprise cases is frighteningly low.”

The Secret dude Society, BB3

New sitcom The Secret Dude Society is coming to BBC3. Filming at Glasgow’s BBC Pacific Quay studios begins in the New Year. Edinburgh Fringe Festival regulars Pappy’s are formed of Tom Parry, Matthew Crosby and Ben Clark and the new studio comedy sees the trio get up to a whole host of hilarious adventures at home, at work and in love.

Best known for their sketch antics, Pappy’s five-star fringe show, Last Show Ever, was nominated for the Edinburgh comedy award earlier this year, and the show is currently touring the UK before the trio head to Glasgow to start filming the caper-driven series.

Gavin Smith, creative director of the comedy unit, said: “We’ve long been fans of Pappy’s amazing live shows, so it’s been great to work with them on taking their on-stage personas and finding a sitcom world for them to inhabit which still has room for all the mayhem they convey to a live audience.”

The Dumping Ground takes to Newcastle

CBBC’s The Dumping Ground has gone into production in Newcastle. Now Tracy Beaker has left, the young residents of The Dumping Ground, who have been by her side over the past three years, take centre stage with the series following their dilemmas, dramas and friendships, along with the challenges faced by young people in care.

The show’s writers include the award-winning Elly Brewer, who has worked on all the Tracy Beaker series.