The Donmar Warehouse’s agenda-setting all-female Shakespeare trilogy and Andrew Scott’s acclaimed Hamlet are to be shown on the BBC.

Announcing its arts and culture programming for 2018, the broadcaster also said there would be documentary films about Muriel Spark, Angela Carter and Tracey Emin; a season of dance programmes on BBC Four; and a much-anticipated reboot of Kenneth Clark’s Civilisation.

Jonty Claypole, the BBC’s director of arts, said the new 10-part series called Civilisations, which will be presented by Mary Beard, Simon Schama and David Olusoga, was “the biggest arts commission in decades” and part of an “exceptional” year of programming.

The BBC has significantly upped its game when it comes to the arts since Tony Hall, former chief executive of the Royal Opera House, took over as director-general four years ago. In 2014, he promised “more arts on the BBC than ever before”.

Claypole said: “As the nation’s stage, the BBC wants the UK to be the most creative and culturally engaged country in the world, because the arts bring us together like nothing else. There really will be something for everyone who loves the arts on the BBC in 2018.”

Phyllida Lloyd’s all-female productions of Julius Caesar, Henry IV and The Tempest, all filmed at the Donmar’s pop-up theatre in King’s Cross, will be one of the TV highlights. Julius Caesar will be on BBC Four and the others on BBC iPlayer.

The Almeida theatre’s four-hour production of Hamlet, directed by Robert Icke, will be shown on BBC Two. It was critically acclaimed with the Evening Standard describing Scott’s performance as “career-defining”, and Kate Kellaway, in the Observer, calling the show an “all-consuming marvel”.

Alan Yentob returns with his arts documentary series Imagine, this year with subjects including Tracey Emin, Mel Brooks, Rupert Everett on Oscar Wilde and Philip Pullman.

There will be the return of the BBC’s long-running Film programme, a show some feared had been sidelined by the BBC. Previously presented by Barry Norman, Jonathan Ross and Claudia Winkleman, no announcement has yet been made on a Film 2018 presenter.

Other TV highlights will include Nothing Like a Dame, a one-off documentary which sees Joan Plowright, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith and Eileen Atkins together looking back on their remarkable careers; and Mark Kermode’s personal guide to cinema over five episodes.

Radio highlights will include an adaptation of Lucy Prebble’s National Theatre play The Effect on Radio 3; and a three-part series on street art on Radio 4.