Buena Vista International Television (BVITV), the TV distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company, has licensed the hit comedy Calendar Girls to the BBC, as part of a substantial movie deal.

The package of over 100 titles, valued at E16.8 million, gives the BBC exclusive UK free TV rights to a collection of top family entertainment, box-office successes and critically-acclaimed titles from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films.

But MPs have warned the BBC to forget ratings-grabbing Hollywood hits and invest more in producing British films after it spent E14 million buying the rights to screen the first Harry Potter film earlier this year.