Former Dr Who stars lead BBC's drama line-up for new season

Elba will star in a new BBC1 police drama in which the murderer's identity is known from the start.

Luther is part of the corporation's new winter/spring drama season, which also sees Piper starring in Kay Mellor drama A Passionate Woman and Eccleston taking on the role of John Lennon.

BBC2 will run a season dedicated to the 1980s, which will see Martin Amis's novel Money, the darkly comic tale of greed and excess, brought to TV screens, starring Hot Fuzz actor Nick Frost.

It will also feature a drama titled Royal Wedding, about life in a Welsh village set against the backdrop of the wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer.

BBC1 also plans to air a drama based around the victims of serial killer Steve Wright.

The BBC said Five Daughters had been made with the co-operation of Suffolk Police and would follow the inside story of the investigation.

Piper and Royle Family actress Sue Johnston will return to BBC1 to play two stages in the life of Betty, a wife and mother who falls deeply in love with a Polish neighbour with disastrous consequences. The channel will also show The Deep, a five-part thriller set thousands of feet below the Arctic ice.

James Nesbitt, Minnie Driver and Visnjic will star in the story, which follows the crew of a submarine as they search the final frontiers of Earth for unknown life forms.

On BBC4, Lennon Naked will see former Doctor Who star Eccleston playing Lennon's transition from a Beatle, exploring his relationship with Yoko Ono.

The new season will also see the return of old favourites such as Doctor Who, with new Doctor Matt Smith at the helm, and Ashes to Ashes, which will unravel several mysteries in its final series.