The £125m season features 70 hours of contemporary drama as the channel moves away from period costumes and concentrates on new drama.

Michael French joins former Coronation Street star Angela Griffin in Holby Central - a spin-off from medical drama Casualty which follows the action outside the accident and emergency unit.

Nick Berry and Matilda Ziegler in Harbour Lights

Nick Berry also teams up with a former Coronation Street regular - Tina Hobley - in Harbour Lights, the story of a small South Coast community dominated by feuding families and ruthless business deals.

The series is the first project to result from the BBC's two-year deal with Berry's company, Valentine Productions.

Michelle Collins stars in Sunburn, following the lives and loves of a group of holiday representatives in Cryprus.

Other highlights include Sean Bean in a TV version of Andy McNab's SAS bestseller Bravo Two Zero, while Vicious Circle portrays the life of Dublin criminal Martin Cahill.

BBC One controller Peter Salmon said: "BBC One puts its flag firmly on the modern drama map of British television with an unprecented amount of contemporary drama on offer to viewers this winter."

Kay Mellor's Playing The Field and Jimmy McGovern's The Lakes both return to the channel and period drama is not forgotten altogether - Richard E Grant stars in The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Boyzone frontman Ronan Keating hosts Get Your Act Together - a talent show where the studio audience chooses from wannabe pop stars who are competing for a recording contract.

Caroline Aherne is back as Mrs Merton, but stays out of the studio in Mrs Merton & Malcolm, where the action is set in the terraced house where she lives with her bachelor son.

Sean Bean stars in Bravo Two Zero

Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer's show, Families at War, gets a series and Ainsley Harriot hosts The Hidden Camera Show.

Factual shows also feature highly in the schedule.

Current EastEnders actor and self-confessed gadget freak Adam Woodyatt joins Carol Vorderman in Dreamhouse - which reveals the contents of the home of the future.

Paddington Green features the real life inhabitants of an area of West London - including models, prostitutes, safe-crackers and entrepreneurs, while an Omnibus special explores the legacy of French impressionist Claud Monet.

Changing Rooms and Groundforce return, while Matchmaker follows a dating agency in action. Meanwhile, Love Town is about life in Scotland's marriage capital, Gretna Green.