BBC One has commissioned Outcasts, a new eight-part drama series from the makers of Spooks, Hustle and Life On Mars, set on a recently-discovered planet.

Created by Ben Richards (Spooks, The Fixer), the series tells of the dilemmas, loves and lives of a group of people setting up a new world. The life-sustaining planet is now home to the surviving population from Earth.

“Set in 2040, Outcasts begins on the day the last known transporter from Earth arrives, prompting great excitement on the new planet: Who is on board? Friends and loved ones? Important supplies and news from Earth? But also many questions: Will the new people bring the problems of Earth with them? Will the mistakes that destroyed Earth be repeated? Will the arrival of a new, would-be leader, rock the fragile and precarious equilibrium of our fresh, unified and courageous new world?”

Executive producer Jane Featherstone describes the series as “action packed and full of surprises”.

Ben Stephenson, Controller, BBC Drama Commissioning, says: “The Kudos team have an amazing track record in delivering iconic new drama series and with Ben’s truly imaginative but emotional, intuitive writing, Outcasts has the potential to be an intelligent and unmissable BBC drama.”

Shooting on the eight 60-minute episodes will begin in South Africa in April 2010.