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"BBC Drama boss Ben Stephenson took a swipe at rival broadcaster Sky at the launch of his channel&amp;#039;s new year of drama commissioning. Stephenson confirmed details of a replacement for Merlin in the autumn schedules, new details about Doctor Who&amp;#039;s 50th anniversary and new commissions such as the Liz Taylor and Richard Burton biopic.  The drama boss said that he wanted the BBC to be &amp;quot;inspiringly creative&amp;quot; and that he intended to articulate &amp;quot;that we are the adventurous and gung-ho market leader that the competition can only follow and sometimes, maybe even copy&amp;quot;. He added: &amp;quot;Yes, I am looking at you Sky and your &amp;#039;original British drama&amp;#039; tagline.&amp;quot; Stephenson also appeared to be critical of Sky Atlantic&amp;#039;s attempts to become a British HBO and its recent commission for a British adaptation of Scandinavian crime drama The Bridge, claiming that the BBC will always innovate rather than mimic American TV or Nordic Noir. &amp;quot;At all costs we must protect our own British values. Without which we&amp;#039;re a cheap imitation of Hollywood or a less Scandi version of Scandi,&amp;quot; said Stephenson.    &amp;quot;Why copy other countries when we can be the best at what we can do? I want us to be international, but crucially on our own terms. Rather than naively chasing the ambition to be a British HBO and chasing famous names, it&amp;#039;s about having a Danny Boyle vision to our work.  &amp;quot;Britishness doesn&amp;#039;t mean we don&amp;#039;t work with the best international talent. We should have really open and creative borders. None of this is about being niche. The ambition to be popular and brilliant runs through the BBC.&amp;quot; Stephenson used the launch to celebrate the success of recent BBC drama hits such as Call The Midwife, Line of Duty, Last Tango In Halifax and Death In Paradise, which all have further series commissioned. Watch the BBC Drama 2013 showreel:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/broadcasting/news/a458261/bbc-drama-boss-takes-pop-at-sky-over-original-drama-copying/>