Glasgow-based independent TV production company Matchlight has been signed to produce three two-hour arts and history programmes for BBC.

The commissions are a joint venture with London-based production and distribution group, DCD Media.

Two shows will be aired on BBC Two: in the first Professor Amanda Vickery marks the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jane Austen’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility, with The Prime of Miss Jane Austen; and in the second former soldier, diplomat and historian, Rory Stewart MP, considers the history of foreign interventions in Afghanistan, in The Great Game.

Matchlight has worked with both theses hosts before.

The third commission will appear on BBC Four, in which Dr Helen Castor will write and present She Wolves, a three-part history based upon her bestselling book, She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth.

Ross Wilson, Matchlight’s creative director, said: “Matchlight is now just two years old, we opened for business in June two years ago, but in that time I think we have established a good reputation for delivering popular and intelligent specialist factual programmes of scale and ambition that rate well.

“The six hours of programming we are announcing today across BBC Two and BBC Four will, I hope, consolidate that reputation.”