BBC Three's blog

8:30pm Friday 23 September on BBC THREE

EastEnders – E20 returns for a third series to be shown online first before a BBC Three omnibus, featuring three brand new characters – Donnie, Ava and Faith – and developed by BBC Learning to address issues in the PSHE curriculum such as family breakdown, bullying and teen sex

9:00pm Wednesday 21 September on BBC THREE

Iain De Caestecker stars in award-winning writer Jack Thorne’s new fantasy horror about a young man who sees the Fades – the spirits of the dead – all around him; Natalie Dormer, Johnny Harris, Daniela Nardini and Claire Rushbrook also star

9:00pm Monday 19 September on BBC THREE

This documentary follows the experiences of two teenage girls trying to escape from forced marriages

9:00pm Thursday 15 September on BBC THREE

A group of young men are followed as they leave friends, families and lives behind to become Britain’s next generation of infantry soldiers

9:00pm Wednesday 13 July on BBC THREE

Roger Nsengiyumva, star of the football movie Africa United, goes back to his Rwandan homeland to discover the harrowing truths of his family history

9:00pm Monday 11 July on BBC THREE

Seventeen-year-old Jazz, who has restrictive growth (and was the subject of last year’s Small Teen, Big World on BBC Three), embarks on a life-changing journey, leaving her Colwyn Bay home and the mum she has cared for since she was 13 to study animal welfare at a residential college

8:00pm Saturday 9 July on BBC THREE

Coverage continues from Scotland’s biggest music festival as Coldplay, Foo Fighters, Tinie Tempah and Primal Scream perform in Balado, Kinross-shire

8:00pm Friday 8 July on BBC THREE

Arctic Monkeys, Jessie J, White Lies and Plan B are the main stage headliners on the opening day of Scotland’s biggest music festival, with coverage presented by Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates, from Balado, Kinross-shire

BBC Three controller Zai Bennett has today announced three new commissions from the Fresh strand, the channel’s established scheme for first-time directors looking to break into prime-time film-making.

BBC Three’s Fresh strand has been running since 2008 and has produced successes such as My Brother The Islamist and Autistic Me.

The new films are: The Butterfly And The Tornado (w/t), following Sam Hall, a young stormchaser with a rare skin condition; Ashley – Impulsive Behaviour (w/t), which charts the journey of a young ADHD sufferer and Olympic hopeful; and Deaf Teen, Hearing World (w/t), which ventures into the little-known world of deaf people.

Zai Bennett says: “The Fresh strand is vital to BBC Three’s factual offering, providing new film-makers with a voice to tell compelling and often inspiring stories about young people in extraordinary circumstances. I’m incredibly impressed by the quality of recent Fresh films like My Brother The Islamist and Autistic Me, and I am keen to build on these successes.”

The Butterfly And The Tornado (w/t) sees first-time director Danny Beck on a road trip across the American Midwest with Sam Hall, stormchaser extraordinaire and Epidermolysis Bullosa sufferer. Sam was born with this debilitating condition – her skin is fragile like a butterfly’s wings. Despite her condition, every year Sam heads out to Tornado Alley and throws herself into these hives of chaos and destruction.

Ashley has ADHD. He can’t hold down a job and struggles to contain his behaviour. But there’s one thing he is exceptionally good at – he is training to compete at the London 2012 Olympics in judo. Now the Olympics are on the horizon, his behaviour has never been so critical. Ashley – Impulsive Behaviour (w/t) follows him as he moves in with his new coach, a tough, no-nonsense ex-Olympian, and there is no escape from the intense daily grind of training.

Deaf Teen, Hearing World (w/t) sees director Claire Braden take an insightful look into a hitherto closed-off world, challenging preconceived ideas about deaf people and what it means to have a disability. It follows some extraordinary deaf teens as they come of age and go off to university and dance school – fully immersing themselves in the hearing world for the first time. Taking a surprising and counter-intuitive tone the programme shows that not all deaf teens want to be able to hear, as they take viewers into their lives to show how proud they are of their own culture.

Charlotte Moore, Commissioning Editor, Documentaries says: “It can be difficult for new directors to get their first prime-time commission, which is why BBC Three’s Fresh strand is so important to new talent within the documentary community. We have had some wonderful Fresh documentaries in the past, with many directors going on to enjoy further success, like Danni Davis who went on to make Laura Hall: My Battle With Booze.”

Other recent Fresh commissions include Jamie – Drag Queen At 16, Josie And The Cancer Curse and Genocide, Mum And Me.

The Butterfly And The Tornado and Ashley – Impulsive Behaviour will transmit on BBC Three in the autumn, and Deaf Teen, Hearing World early in 2012.    

7:00pm Thursday 9 June on BBC THREE

Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt is expected to be among the athletes competing in Oslo at the fifth of 14 Diamond League meetings being held over 128 days