The BBC has commissioned 30 single dramas in an ambitious attempt to document life over the last three decades. Fifteen 60-minute scripts will be commissioned from in-house producers with another fifteen scripts from independent producers. The deals are worth around £25m.

The project is called Decades and the dramas will cover one for every single year between 1970 and 2000. BBC Controller of Drama Jane Tranter has declared it to be "the boldest undertaking by BBC drama to date."

BBC 2 Controller Roly Keating says the series is groundbreaking.

"Decades is the kind of rule-breaking broadcasting BBC2 was invented for - diverse, individualistic and wildly ambitious."

It is understood that scriptwriters Tony Marchant, who wrote The Family Man for BBC1 and Andrew Davies, who adapted Bleak House, have been approached for the project. To be broadcast on BBC2 in 2008, the dramas are being executive produced by Anne Mensah, who was appointed head of drama for BBC Scotland in January, and senior BBC drama executive Sarah Brandist.

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