BBC favourites including Masterchef and Casualty are to feature more millennials as the corporation tries to add youth appeal to its flagship channels.

In its annual plan, outlining priorities for the coming financial year, the BBC said it would be “focusing on young-appeal programmes and genres on BBC One and BBC Two”.

It will be “reinvigorating high-volume shows which provide everyday value to younger audiences, such as EastEnders, The One Show, Masterchef, Holby City and Casualty”.

For dramas, this will involve storylines that reflect the experience of young people. The BBC pointed to a recent EastEnders plot that focused on knife crime, and a focus on male mental health in Holby City.

In factual programming, it will mean more contributors in the prized 16-34 age bracket.

The average age of a BBC One viewer is 61, and a year older for BBC Two. Recent research from Ofcom found that one in eight young people consume no BBC content at all in a given week, with US streaming services and YouTube eating into their audience.