Janice Hadlow, BBC Four controller, said 'Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management' drama would debunk the myth of Mrs Beeton, played by Anna Madeley, as "dumpy, matronly and middle-aged" and tell the story of a young chef-turned-journalist, who changed the face of cooking in the 19th century.
Keeping the culinary theme, Sixties TV chef drama 'Fanny Cradock' will star Julia Davis as the protagonist alongside husband Johnnie, played by Mark Gatiss.
A major production of 'Wide Sargasso Sea', Jean Rhys' 1966 "prequel" to Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre', featuring Rafe Spall, Rebecca Hall and Nina Sosanya, is also planned.
Denys Blakeway's 'Abdication' completes BBC Four's historically themed line-up. It is set to expose the secret roles politicians, diarists and members of the Royal Family played in the downfall of Wallace Simpson and Edward VIII.
The channel's autumn and winter schedule will also feature the return of stand-up comedian Jack Dee, who has co-written 'Lead Balloon', a sketch show with Pete Sinclair, which BBC Four describes as a "wry, satirical and sometimes dark" comedy.
Sir David Attenborough will narrate 'Anthropology' a philosophical documentary about eccentric anthropologist Tom Harrison.
Mark Anstice fronts 'First Contact', which investigates the moral dilemmas of making contact with tribes in some of the remotest regions of the planet.
'California Dreaming' will take a look at the influence of 70s music, movies, art, literature and politics on the West Coast of the USA.
Finally, horror and suspense thriller 'The Haunted Airmen', adapted from a Dennis Wheatley short story, and 'Voyages of Discovery', which follows in the footsteps of Magellan and Captain Cook, will also debut.
Hadlow said: "This autumn we'll be tackling British science fiction, anthropology and seventies California, with the distinctive BBC Four trademark blend of factual, drama and classic archive."
BBC Four said it had recorded an 4.6m average weekly reach among digital audiences from January to July this year, with an overall channel increase of 40% in July year-on-year from 3.1m to 4.3m.
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