Comedy in January sees a number of returning shows including Spies, Trollied and Mount Pleasant. Alison Jackson brings her look-a-like brand of humour to a new pilot, Sam Wills silent-comedy style also gets a one-off show and Some Girls is set in an inner-London comprehensive school.

Over in factual, a new series examines how the current financial squeeze is putting pressure on relationships, Bulk Buy Britain is a pilot looking at whether whole communities could benefit from group purchasing power and Victoria And Abdul (W.T.) examines the relationship between Queen Victoria and her Indian servant Abdul Karim. Our Holocaust uses first-hand accounts of concentration camp survivors to see how the experience has shaped their lives, Seconds from disaster is back for a new series and The Soham Murders - Ten Years On looks at how the case has influenced subsequent police investigations. The Town That Never Retired takes one town and puts all its OAPs back in the workplace to see if they can teach the younger generation a few tricks, 12 Again sees some well-known faces revisiting their youth and Don't Mind Him, He's My Midwife follows the sometimes awkward the work of male midwives.

Drama this month includes The Village, a new drama looking at 100 years of the life of a village as seen through one man's eyes, Ripper Street is set in London's East End just after the spate of Jack The Ripper murders, focusing on the people of the area who are trying to rebuild their lives, while high-octane drama Strike Back returns for a third series. Mrs. Biggs looks at the life of great train robber Ronnie Biggs from the point of view of his wife, Falcon adapts the novels by Robert Wilson and a new take on the classic Swiss Family Robinson is on its way. The Secret Of Crickley Hall adapts James Herbert novel about a family who move to a large house in Devon with a sinister past, DCI Banks is back for a second series and Lacey Turner stars in the second series of contemporary supernatural thriller Bedlam.

Over in features, Cassy and Jude is based on the novel by Dorothy Baker about rival sisters, Noir adapts the dark comic stage play by Peter Straughan and Swallows and Amazons is gearing up for a spring shoot. The Laureate examines the relationship between Robert Graves and his wife Laura Riding, Last Days On Mars is a science-fiction feature about a group of astronauts being murdered one by one by an unknown adversary and Stay With Me tells the tale of an impressionable young girl who falls in love with a man on the run. Lots of other things in the pipeline including Honeycomb, Ten Meals with Mandy Moon, Rush, Gemma Bovery and Richard Ayoade is set to direct a new version of Fodyr Dostoyevsky's dark thriller The Double.

Finally, next Christmas we will come face to face with The Snowman II, a follow up to classic festive story by Raymond Briggs but without the irritating song that gave Aled Jones a career. The sequel is unlikely to be a revenge thriller with the snowman back to settle old scores with the boy that left him to melt but we live in hope.

Have a good month.

Martin Brand

Crimson Date Book

Jan 2012

Palm Springs International Film Festival… London Short Film Festival… London International Mime Festival… Golden Globe Awards… Tromso International Digital Film Forum… International Film Festival… Slamdance Film Festival… Stuttgarter Filmwinter…. The Media Society Winter Drinks… NATPE 2012… FIPA 2011… FIPA 2011… National Television Awards… Rotterdam International Film Festival… Oxford Media Convention And dozens more

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