No I haven’t made a typo and no you are not  dreaming this, the BBC is to create a drama based on the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Of all the places a live action take on GTA would show up BBC 2 was probably the last you would have expected, it’s more suited to HBO or the cinema.
Just to make things even more odd, the drama is part of the BBC’s new Make it Digital initiative, “a major UK-wide initiative to inspire a new generation to get creative with coding, programming and digital technology”. By ‘new generation’ they mean children, ones who should not be playing the 18 rated Grand Theft Auto games.
Along with the GTA program there will be the not-at-all-sexist BBC Three talent show, Girls Can Code, and dramas based on Gordon Welchman – The Forgotten Genius Of Bletchley Park – and pioneering mathematician Ada Lovelace.
I’m sure the BBC mean well, and getting children in to coding is great but perhaps they should leave GTA to a network who can make sure it appears in screen in its sweary, ultra violent glory.
Source: BBC
UPDATE:
Dear BBC,
When you announce something – and I’m quoting your own press release here – as “A new drama based on Grand Theft Auto, one of the most extraordinary creative and controversial success stories of our time,” perhaps you could actually mean that before writers across the globe have hit ‘publish’.
In fact your press release should read “A new drama based on the making of Grand Theft Auto, one of the most extraordinary creative and controversial success stories of our time”, which is a completely different thing.
Yours sincerely,
Thoroughly Annoyed of Streatham
Avenger
No, the last place I would’ve expected this is BBC 4. BBC 2 was near though. I really don’t see this being much good at all (does anyone?).
Carrot381
GTA Chipping Norton – starring Jeremy Clarkson.
Avenger
Jeremy Clarkson would fit in to the program brilliantly. There’d just be explosions and hammers everywhere.
On a side note, a documentary sounds more like normality. Brilliant lack of ‘the making of’. It’s those small details isn’t it.
bunimomike
Is this even a drama or just a documentary? :-\
Tuffcub
A drama about coding the game. Not a drama bout looting banks in San Andreas.
bunimomike
Ah, okay. I guess I’ll make sense of it when it airs. Strange wording from the BBC, regardless. :-\
Tuffcub
I have already complained to the BBC*
*My mate Dave who works there.
Tienpawa
You guys should read ‘Jacked: The Outlaw Story Of Grand Theft Auto’