LIVERPOOL screenwriter Jimmy McGovern has been commissioned to create a new primetime drama for BBC1.

Accused will explore how the perpetrators of crimes of passion are charged by the police.

It is being written by the team behind Bafta-winning series The Street, and is due to air in the autumn.

McGovern, who is hosting a screening of his 1994 film Priest at FACT next week to raise money for youth project Clapperboard UK, said he is pleased with how the scripts are shaping up.

He said: “I know I am speaking miles in advance but I have very high hopes.

“So far, I think it is every bit as good as The Street and we were really proud of that.

“There is one story in particular about a young man who comes home from Afghanistan which I am really excited about.”

Writers on the project include Liverpool’s Esther Wilson, whose verbatim play Ten Tiny Toes, about the mothers of British soldiers stationed in Iraq, received critical acclaim at the Everyman in 2008.

Alice Nutter, a former member of punk-pop band Chumbawamba, and award-winning Clocking Off and Shameless writer Danny Brocklehurst, are also working on Accused.

Meanwhile, the BBC has announced its spring programming will feature a two-part drama by Boys From The Blackstuff writer Alan Bleasdale.

Initially commissioned in 2008, The Sinking Of The Laconia is based on factual accounts of the attack of RMS Laconia by a German U-boat in September, 1942.

Lt Commander Werner Hartenstein acted beyond the call of duty – and against orders from the Nazi high command – in undertaking a daring rescue operation when he discovered the ship he had just sunk was carrying large numbers of civilians and thousands of Italian prisoners-of-war. It will be broadcast on BBC2.

Jimmy McGovern talks about his new drama in today's LDP Weekender. Click here to read the article.