Steve McQueen is launching a new six-part series on the BBC that will follow its characters from the 1960s to the present day.

The director who won a best film Oscar for 12 Years A Slave has been signed up by the broadcaster to make the drama series, his first TV project.

It was reported in January that the programme was being developed, but now the BBC has confirmed that it is definitely going ahead.

Steve McQueen at the Oscars 2014
Steve McQueen with his best film Oscar (Ian West/PA)

Production company Rainmark’s managing director Tracey Scoffield told Broadcast: “Steve would love it to be on BBC One. He wants to reach a very wide audience with this.

“It is very entertaining and moving. Steve has done a lot of research on it and we’re now working on the script and appointing writers with an eye to shooting next spring.”

The series, as yet unnamed, follows a black community in West London over six decades.

Steve is also working on a US series for HBO called Codes Of Conduct about an African-American man trying to get into New York high society, and is co-writing the Widows film remake with Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn.