It's presented an opportunity to look back at 2012 on BBC Two. The amazing resurgence in drama has continued with the success of The Hollow Crown which received some of the most wonderful reviews I've ever seen. And then we had Line Of Duty - the channel's best performing drama series since 2002.

Actress Julie Walters being made-up during shooting for BBC Two's The Hollow Crown.

Comedy is also on a high with the success of Twenty Twelve, The Sarah Millican Show and Rev; documentaries have gained incredible access and tackled tough subjects in a sensitive way, from Protecting Our Children to Britain In A Day; and we've filmed live from the edge of a volcano, seen the last interview with Lucian Freud and learnt how to bake the perfect Victoria sponge.

More recently, I've been pleased to see the channel's strong performance against the Olympics. Offering viewers a genuine alternative is what public service broadcasting is all about and I'm delighted that BBC Two did it so well.

Of course, the drive to make the channel more distinctive and the impact of DQF cuts are challenging but I'm pleased that the channel continues to outperform its competitors at peak and that audience appreciation is as high as ever.

Looking ahead, I want the same sense of confidence and scale to continue. Today I announced a number of exciting new commissions that demonstrate the bold approach the channel continues to take.

Throughout 2013 BBC Two will celebrate British inventiveness and ingenuity with programmes from history, science, documentaries and arts. The Genius Of Invention will include programmes from Michael Moseley, Brian Cox, Liz Bonnin and the Hairy Bikers exploring all aspects of Britain's scientific and engineering history.

I'm a huge fan of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and the more recent Bring Out The Bodies and I am delighted that we are turning her prize-winning novels into a drama series. We also have a new series from the brilliant Hugo Blick.

We've got more great comedy with new series featuring some of our brightest and funniest comedians - Sue Perkins, Mitchell and Webb and Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson.

And finally, Amanda Vickery is back with an exploration of women in art.

You can see a sneak preview of the exciting drama that is coming up on the channel below and there's more information about more of BBC Two's new commissions in this press release.

Janice Hadlow is controller of BBC Two.

I've just finished my 'Meet the Controller' session at the Edinburgh TV Festival where I was interviewed by Kate Silverton. It was a chance to reflect on what I think has been a really good year for BBC Two. We screened some of the highlights and you can see them in the video.

There's been an amazing resurgence in drama and comedy, with programmes like The Hour, The Shadow Line, Crimson Petal and The White, The Trip and Episodes. We've proved that quality can rate with programmes like Wonders of the Universe, Stargazing Live, Battle of Britain, and we've not been afraid to tackle sensitive subjects in factual programmes, for example Terry Pratchett Choosing To Die and the recent Life Of Muhammad series. We've also nurtured some really engaging and authoritative new presenters on the channel, like Mary Beard, Amanda Vickery, Brian Cox, Lorraine Pascale and Ben McIntyre. We've won five RTS awards and five Bafta awards this year across the range of genres and I'm pleased to say that BBC Two share is up in peak so far this year, which suggests that viewers like the direction that the channel is moving in too. Thank you for all your support.

If you look at what has worked over the last year you can see what the channel needs more of going forward, and this is what we were talking about in the session. I was pleased to be able to announce that The Hour will be returning - a programme that has had tremendous impact and has seen its audience appreciation figures rise over the series. We have agreed with writer Abi Morgan that the next series will be set ten months later and it will be interesting to see how the plot develops. You can read more about it on the BBC Press Office web site.

I'm also delighted that Mary Beard will be returning to the channel with a three-part series on Rome. Following her ratings-busting first appearance on the channel with a one-hour documentary on Pompeii, we have persuaded her to put academia aside for a few more months in order to make a series for us on what life was like for ordinary people in ancient Roman Society. Mary is a wonderfully engaging and charismatic communicator, with a wealth of knowledge on her subject - always compelling, always passionate, she's a joy to watch. There's more about the new series in the press release and if you'd like to know more about our forthcoming programmes, take a look at our summer and autumn press pack.

Janice Hadlow is Controller of BBC Two

• The Media Guardian Edinburgh International TV Festival starts today and goes on all weekend. Details on the official web site. Follow @edinburghtvfest on Twitter.
• The Guardian has a special page for news from the festival.
• There's also a special page on the BBC Press Office web site for announcements from the Festival.

Dominic West stars in BBC Two's new production, The Hour.

This week we've launched the new BBC Two Summer and Autumn season highlights online. It's a schedule that has been months, indeed years, in the planning and I hope by seeing all the programming together you will get a sense of the range, breadth and, of course, the distinct flavour that is BBC Two.

So what's coming up? Well, we'll be continuing our resurgence in drama and comedy. Any moment now, you'll be able to enjoy The Hour - our next six-parter, set in 1956 in a BBC newsroom, written by Abi Morgan. We're delighted to be showing Page Eight, David Hare's first TV drama for 20 years, and definitely well worth the wait; and also Paula Milne's evocative adaptation of Sarah Walter's book, The Nightwatch.

And I can reveal that next year we can also look forward to an exciting multi-part series from Stephen Poliakoff. Dancing On The Edge is set in 1930s London and follows the stories of a black jazz band and their circle.

These pieces will be part of an amazingly rich drama offer in 2012 including an ambitious adaptation by Tom Stoppard of Ford Maddox Ford's Parade's End; Top Of The Lake, a thriller from acclaimed New Zealand director Jane Campion; Paula Milne's White Heat, which follows a group of friends from their first meeting in 1969 to the present day; and Sam Mendes's take on what for me are some of the greatest of all Shakespeare's history plays. Can't wait...

There's new comedy from Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais, showcasing the talents of short actor Warwick Davis; and we can also look forward to the return of the much-loved Rev, Episodes and Grandma's House.

Meanwhile factual continues to fire on all cylinders. There's a rich mix of new, exciting factual programming, that engages with the contemporary world in a very BBC Two way: whether its exploring the landscape of modern British life in the Mixed Race Season; reflecting on ten years of war in Afghanistan; joining the Hairy Bikers as they campaign for the survival of Meals on Wheels in their next series; or enjoying Brian Cox and A Night With The Stars, an unplugged encounter between the nation's coolest particle physicist and an opinionated gathering of scientific scholars and enthusiastic amateurs.

One of the things I most hoped to see on the channel when I took over were more women doing more things more often and with more authority. So it was particularly pleasing to see that ambition begin to bear fruit over the last year. We welcomed some great new female talent to the channel, including: Amanda Vickery, presenter of At Home With the Georgians, which put the domestic lives of real people in the historical spotlight. She's now working on a film about Jane Austen for BBC Two; Lorraine Pascal whose debut series Baking Made Easy was one of the biggest popular factual successes of last year and who we hope will be starting work soon on a second series, Home Cooking Made Easy; and Lyse Doucet, who is already part of the BBC Two family with wonderful reports she's done over the years for Newsnight and has now made an extraordinary film for us in our Afghanistan season, about life in that country behind the headlines. It's a great programme - it goes out in two weeks, and will add a whole new dimension to your understanding about that troubled country.

And on top of all that, BBC Two is also the channel that brings you Top Gear, Dragon's Den, Coast and Springwatch. That offers distinctive journalism almost every night of the year in Newsnight. That will bring you Ian Hislop on Victorian bankers and Waldemar Januszczak on the Impressionists. That will tell you how to bake the perfect scone as well as explore the hidden mathematical patterns which underpin the natural world in Marcus du Sautoy's forthcoming series The Code. BBC Two will make you laugh with Mock the Week and cry with Great Ormond Street revisited. As a channel, BBC Two isn't always easy to pin down; sometimes we defy categorisation. But for me it's this rich variety, this eclectic mix of intelligent output, that makes us interesting.

Janice Hadlow is Controller of BBC Two

• The BBC Press Office has all the details of the new season.

Today, you'll find an interview with me on the press office website, where I pick and describe several of the highlights from the upcoming schedule.

It's a great line-up that reflects what BBC Two can be at its best, with programmes that are exciting, stimulating, unafraid of being intelligent, but also never losing sight of our duty to entertain. It contains shows that span the lambing season, the history of science or the wonders of the universe; history programmes that cover subjects as diverse as our naval heritage or the recent past; explorations of literature; drama that spans the 1840s to the 1980s; star-studded comedy and cookery; in-depth looks at British family life, Barack Obama's presidential campaign and city life in the third world; as well as an offbeat history of bovine life and a couple of Christmas treats.

I think you'll be challenged, surprised and, of course, entertained by the schedule. But, above all, I hope you'll feel that BBC Two programmes give you something to think about.