Sky brings live drama back to TV

Comedian and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig is artistic director of the series

The Sky Arts channel will bring back live drama to television this summer with six newly commissioned plays by authors including Kate Mosse.

Sky says it is the first time live new plays have been aired on TV since the BBC's Play for Today finished in 1984.

Pauline Collins will star in one of the plays in the project, starting 8 July.

Artistic director Sandi Toksvig described it as "genuine 'reality' television - drama as it happens, whenever it happens".

Debut playwrights

"Vibrant, immediate, warts and all. I started my career in live television. It has an energy that cannot be found elsewhere and I am delighted to be going back," she added.

Each creative team will only have three weeks to rehearse the play before it is aired on Wednesday evenings.

The authors will each be making their debut as playwrights, with every performance broadcast in front of a live audience in a Sky studio.

Actors, writers and directors will talk about the process in a live post-show discussion.