Tennant to star in learning disability comedy

Broadchurch star David Tennant is to play the dad of a girl called Rosie who has severe learning disabilities in a new five-part BBC Four comedy drama.

W1A's Jessica Hynes will play his wife in the series written by Shaun Pye.

There She Goes will be based on the experiences of Pye, whose daughter was born in 2006 with a rare and undiagnosed chromosomal disorder.

The show focuses on family life with Rosie - such as trying to explain that every day isn't her birthday.

A second series of BBC Two's Motherland has also been commissioned, featuring the middle class alpha mums driving Anna Maxwell Martin insane.

And a Sir Lenny Henry special will be shown on BBC One to coincide with his 60th birthday this year.

The special, to air later this year, will be filmed in front of a studio audience. The comedian is to take a look back at his career, which started in 1975 when he appeared on talent show New Faces.

It will be hosted by Sir Trevor McDonald.

Sir Lenny said the broadcast is "a great honour" and that he is "very chuffed" to have his comedy work celebrated.

He added: "One of the reasons I became a comedy performer was because of the rich and varied palette of comedy broadcast on the BBC throughout my childhood.

"I'm a comedy consumer now, but my teens were marked by my family's tendency to sit round the television and watch everything. So big up Auntie Beeb - you're the reason I'm here..."

Shane Allen, controller of BBC Comedy commissioning, said: "Lenny's unparalleled career is down to his superb versatility and huge charisma.

Other new shows include Ghosts, from the writers of Horrible Histories and Yonderland, about a group of restless spirits who have died across different centuries living together in an old country home.

There will also be a live Halloween special of Inside No 9 on BBC Two - the show created by and starring Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.

A second series of Pls Like, a mockumentary about the world's biggest vloggers, has also been commissioned.

Three new BBC Three pilots have also been announced, including Ambreen Razia's Diary of a Hounslow Girl, based on her play of the same name.

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