BBC Three has announced the commission of Tatau, a brand new eight-part fantasy drama series.

Tatau is the first new drama series to be commissioned for BBC Three since In the Flesh. The future of In the Flesh has yet to be announced by BBC Three.

Written by Richard Zajdlic and co-produced by Touchpaper TV (makers of Being Human) and South Pacific Pictures in association with BBC America, eight 45-minute episodes of Tatau will begin filming in September.

Richard Zajdlic has previously written episodes of By Any Means, Strike Back, This Life and EastEnders.

Ben Stephenson, BBC Drama Controller, teased: “From the makers of Being Human, Tatau is an ambitious new BBC Three drama series that will raise the bar for viewers of the channel who have a real appetite for distinctive stories from all different worlds.”

Sam Bickley, BBC Three’s Channel Editor, commented: “BBC Three has rightfully made a name for itself producing multi-award-winning dramas like In the Flesh, The Fades and Being Human. Tatau very much continues the channel’s tradition for commissioning original, innovative and exciting drama that you would not expect to see anywhere else.”

Executive producer Rob Pursey added: “It’s exciting to produce a show that takes the BBC audience to an entirely new location. And it’s even more exciting to explore the ancient myths of a culture that very few of us are familiar with.”

The official synopsis reads: “Kyle Connor and Pete ‘Budgie’ Griffiths are 20-something friends from London travelling the world looking for sun, fun and adventure. They’ve worked hard, saved even harder, and now finally they’re off, eager to soak up as many different cultures and experiences as they possibly can. Kyle even got himself a Maori-style tattoo in London, excited about their eventual destination: the Cook Islands.

“Kyle is unsettled when local people react to his tattoo: it clearly has a significance that he is entirely unaware of. It’s like he’s been marked out for something – but what?

“Later, while snorkelling in a lagoon, Kyle finds the body of a local girl, Aumea, tied up underwater – dead. Returning to the lagoon with the police, Kyle finds her corpse has disappeared. Budgie wonders if his best friend is going mad – he’s imagining things. But Kyle knows what he saw. And he’s also beginning to realise that he has a gift – or a curse: the murder he’s witnessed isn’t something that has happened, it’s something that will happen in the future.

“Kyle and Budgie find themselves sucked into a desperate race to prevent Aumea’s murder, as Kyle learns that his gifts don’t stop at prophecy… and the full meaning of his tattoo is revealed.”

Being Human concluded on BBC Three in March 2013.

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