The BBC has acquired the award-winning CNN series Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy and will bring the entire first series to iPlayer on February 27th alongside a BBC Two transmission starting the same day.
The series follows Tucci as he travels across Italy to discover the secrets and delights of the country’s regional cuisines.
Produced by CNN and London-based film and television production company RAW, the show recently won a Primetime Emmy Award and has already been renewed for a second season.
In each episode, Tucci visits a different region or city of Italy, showing viewers how the diversity of Italian cooking offers a gateway through which they can glimpse Italy’s history and culture.
From the luxurious creamy carbonara of Rome, the delicious simplicity of Sicily’s pasta alla Norma, the saffron-infused silkiness of risotto in Milan and the world’s best pizza in Naples – he comes prepared with a bottomless appetite for it all.
Tucci said: “It has been a dream of mine to make this show for many years and a great joy to make it with CNN and RAW. I am so honoured that it has been acquired by the esteemed BBC.”
Jo Lapping, Head of Factual Acquisition, BBC, added: “We’re excited to take viewers on an unforgettable journey with the fantastic Stanley Tucci across a country renowned for its incredible food – it’s a brilliantly entertaining and mouth-watering experience we know viewers will enjoy.”