Johannesburg, 24 April 2024 – S3, in partnership with BBC Studios, introduces BBC Primetime, a brand-new content block broadcasting from 21:00 to 23:00, Mondays to Fridays starting on the 1st of May 2024.
This new offering will feature a hand-picked selection of award-winning dramas, factual entertainment and documentaries.
The Monday to Wednesday 21:00 slot will debut with a 6-part series, Luther on the 1st of May, a comedy series Cheaters on the 15th of May and the drama series Death in Paradise on the 22nd of May.
Renowned actor Idris Elba stars as maverick detective John Luther in the gripping and entertaining thriller Luther the series that won him a Golden Globe nomination for his role as Luther. Luther works for the London Serious Crime Unit as a dedicated policeman, an inspired maker of connections and a whirlwind genius. He is dazzling, obsessive and sometimes dangerous in the violence of his fixations. Throughout the series, Luther faces a succession of psychological duels between a hunter and the hunted and a predator and a prey.
From Oliver Lyttelton, a sexy, messy comedy-drama about morality, monogamy and everything in between Cheaters debuts on S3 on the 15th of May; featuring Joshua McGuire and Susan Wokoma as Josh and Fola who discover that they are neighbours after a cancelled flight led to an unlikely night of drunken airport-hotel sex between the two strangers.
A warm, light-hearted detective series, Death in Paradise takes place against a stunning Caribbean island backdrop. Sent to the tiny island of Saint-Marie to solve a mysterious murder, quintessentially British cop Richard Poole is a total fish out of water. Awaiting Richard is a ramshackle station and a very different type of policing.
On the Thursday 21:00 timeslot S3 introduces Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next? on the 2nd of May, The Tik Tok Effect on the 9th of May, This World: The Black American Fight For Freedom on the 16th of May, The Ultimate Guide To Cryptocurrency on the 23rd May and Young Sex For Sale In Japan on the 30th May.
Model Jessica Davies exposes the world of deepfake porn and the psychological impact it has on its female victims in the investigative documentary Deepfake Porn: Could You Be Next? Hundreds of thousands of women are exploited as part of the sinister rise in this online culture. Jessica meets just a few of the victims who tell their stories for the first time, including fitness influencer Maiken Brustad whose iCloud was hacked and her private images turned to deepfake porn. Thousands of pictures and videos of deep fake porn are generated each month, and Jessica tries to uncover the people behind this digital sub-culture and the lasting emotional damage it has on its victims.
On The Tik Tok Effect, the BBC’s disinformation correspondent investigates the truth behind TikTok’s meteoric success.TikTok has taken the world by storm, with over one billion monthly users. Marianna Spring speaks to ex-employees, providing our first real insight into what happens inside the company.
This World: The Black American Fight For Freedom documentary, on the 16th of May, exposes the racial injustices that are faced by black people in America. In 1964, the Civil Rights Act told all Americans: ‘This is not a racist world anymore’, but today, America’s system continues to be rigged against black people – less likely to be wealthy and more likely to be incarcerated. The show uncovers four key legislative moments where the American government extolled racial equality but secretly cemented white power, from housing and education to criminal justice and democracy.
In The Ultimate Guide To Cryptocurrency, Ade Adepitan offers a timely guide to consumers considering the entry and the potentially lucrative but unregulated financial world of cryptocurrency, unpacking the latest trends and need-to-know information. With cryptocurrency going mainstream, is it time to take the plunge before it is too late? Or is it an over-hyped, modern-day Ponzi scheme we should avoid? Ade explores how to make money in this high-risk market – and how easy it is to lose. We follow him as he weighs up the pros and cons, unpacking the latest crypto trends and providing the ultimate guide for consumers: from how blockchains work, to which of the 14,000 coins on the market to purchase and when, to how to distinguish genuine opportunities from scams.
In the hard-hitting investigative documentary Young Sex For Sale In Japan, Stacey Dooley travels to Japan to explore the dark side of one of the world’s strangest sexual cultures. Stacey is horrified to learn that measures to protect children against sexual abuse are virtually non-existent child sexual exploitation cases, where it is often the young victims who get the blame. And while it is now illegal to own child pornography in Japan, she learns that the enforcement of this recently changed law is often weak. Stacey also explores whether the widespread acceptance of manga magazines containing brutal cartoon images of explicit sex acts with school girls contributes to real children being sexually objectified in Japanese society.
S3 adds Top Gear to the Friday night line-up at 21:00 on the 3rd of May. The series features Richard Hammond counting down the top 41 best moments from the last decade of Top Gear, as chosen by the Top Gear team. Highlights are wide and varied golden moments from Top Gear. The series kicks off with James May driving up an active volcano while Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May are on a supercar road trip through Romania, and the identity of the Stig revealed! The action-packed eight-part series continues the countdown with memorable moments from 37 more fantastic Top Gear films.
The second block of the BBC Primetime will close off with comedy on Mondays to Wednesdays at 22:00 as we bring you Live At The Apollo from the 1st of May, Louis Theroux: Forbidden America on Thursdays from the 2nd to16th May, Louis Theroux: Trafficking Sex on Thursday 23rd of May and Louis Theroux: The Night in Question on Thursday 30th May 2024.
A British Stand-Up Comedy, Live At The Apollo from the 1st of May, features the roll call of stand-up comedians who have performed in front of the famous Live At The Apollo lights. Each episode features a stand-up legend treating the crowd to a rip-roaring set before introducing two of the most exciting acts around.
Award-winning filmmaker Louis Theroux returns with a gripping series exploring three controversial corners of American entertainment and meets those accused of dangerous, toxic, and criminal behaviour in the documentary feature Forbidden America. He meets the content creators of the far right and their leaders, who are breeding a fast-growing ‘dissident’ nationalist movement. He meets the rappers striving for glory, those who have risen fast and those who have fallen hard. And as the porn industry grapples with its own MeToo movement, he meets the accused and the accusers. Is justice being handed out fairly?
The second instalment of the Louis Theroux specials is Trafficking Sex. Houston is the fourth largest city in the US and the number one hub for human trafficking in North America. The US Department of Justice estimates that at least one in five of all the country’s victims get trafficked through the city – and most forced to work in the sex industry. Louis explores the often complex dynamic between prostitute and pimp as he tries to understand what stops these women from breaking free. He also embeds with law enforcement and meets Vice Division officers tasked with persuading the working women to speak out against their pimps.
In The Night in Question, Louis Theroux heads to America’s East Coast to explore the rise of sexual assault cases on university campuses. Louis meets young men accused of rape and sexual assault who, while not guilty in a court of law, are being taken through specialist investigations by the universities – and face expulsion if found responsible for the alleged assaults. Louis also talks to complainants who feel let down by the current legal system. And he hears how professionals are trying to establish new rules of consent among America’s younger generation.
Access pictures on the link below.
Channel your inner curiosity with the new BBC Primetime content block on S3 weekdays from 10 pm – 11 pm, starting on the 1st of May 2024.
