BBC schedules The Musketeers against new series of Mr Selfridge

The Musketeers and Mr Selfridge are set to enter a ratings battle for Sunday night viewers when they launch next week.

Series two of ITV's period drama Mr Selfridge wills creen on Sunday, January 19 at 9pm, while the BBC's new series, The Musketeers, has been scheduled at the same time.

Entourage star Jeremy Piven is back in the lead role in Mr Selfridge, the show about London's famous department store, and will be joined this time by singer Alfie Boe and Skins actor Sean Teale.

Meanwhile, Peter Capaldi has been cast as villain Cardinal Richelieu in BBC One series The Musketeers.

Peter, also the new lead in Doctor Who, recently revealed a mishap on set between himself and Musketeers co-star Maimie McCoy that resulted in him dislocating his thumb.

He said: "Dislocated shoulders, bruised shins, the odd concussion. It's one of the occupational hazards of being a swashbuckler.

"I myself suffered a nasty dislocated thumb, but embarrassingly not from swinging a sword around. Instead, my injury came from a domestic the cardinal was having with milady, Maimie McCoy.

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.