Comedy

From Tom Davis and James De Frond, creators of RTS-nominated Murder in Successville, the show follows childhood sweethearts and comedy double act Gary and Terri King, in their pursuit of moderate (and immoderate) success in their competitive suburban idyll.

Combine that with Gary’s desperate need to impress his ‘not-in-my-day’ father, Big Gary, and you have, says the BBC, “a massive ‘try hard’ douchebag”.

Romesh Ranganathan, Simon Day , Camille Coduri , and Laura Checkley will also be appearing in the pilot.

Why will young people care about this? he asked at today’s Edinburgh International Television Festival, as he unveiled a slate of new programmes for the digital channel.

Billy Wizz

Among the commissions is a documentary telling the remarkable story of driver Billy Monger, one of Britain’s most exciting new racing drivers, who last year was involved in an accident which resulted in the loss of both legs.

Hosts James Acaster and Josh Widdicombe will challenge two teams of comedians to a series of absurd hypothetical scenarios, with even more ridiculous answers.

The comedians will be faced with questions such as 'You have to live in a motorway services for a year, how do you cope?', and, 'You have to take a selfie with Nicolas Cage within 48 hours or you die – how do you do it?'. 

Widdicombe will be question master, with Acaster there to throw the teams curveball rules and decide which team should be awarded for the best hypothetical outcomes. 

Following on from the success of Murder on the Blackpool Express in 2017 – the most watched show ever on Gold, Vegas and Gibson are back as Terry and Gemma in Death on the Tyne.

Speaking to the RTS earlier this year, UKTV’s Director of Commissioning, Richard Watsham praised the hit comedy, “Murder on the Blackpool Express was an extraordinarily successful show, It absolutely smashed the audience ratings for Gold.”

Starting next week on Channel 4, Who Is America?, Baron Cohen’s first television series for over a decade, sees him take on the president of the US, rekindling an enmity that began with a 2003 Ali G interview.  

Years later Trump later took to YouTube in the curious vlog series ‘From the Desk of Donald Trump’ to tell Baron Cohen to “go to school [and] learn about being funny.”

Well, now Baron Cohen has graduated from funny school – or rather the Trump University as a video he tweeted in early July suggests.

If you’ve somehow managed to miss the show, it’s basically the strange thoughts you have in the shower, turned into a competition. ‘How do you make a snow globe?’, ‘From how far away can I blow out a candle’, ‘how high can a hose spray water?’. All the important stuff.

The sixth series has drawn to a close and Tim Vine, Russell Howard, Asim Chaudhry, Alice Levine and Lisa Tarbuck have all hung up their Taskmaster trainers and gone home for a rest. Now it’s the turn of a new bunch of comedians to face Taskmaster Greg Davies and his assistant Alex Horne!

The pair are among a talented roster of British talent who will feature in new animated comedy series, Sadie Sparks.

Launching on the Disney Channel in early 2019, the show follows 14-year-old Sadie, who finds out she has magical abilities and becomes a wizard in training – under the guidance of a very old, very grumpy rabbit Gilbert (Hound), who has been sent to help her harness her skills.

The new gameshow, which will air on Dave, pits members of the public against each other in a quest to guess how search engines handled a range of questions.

Hosted by Edinburgh Comedy Awards winner John Robbins, the twenty-part series will be appearing on Dave later this year.

Year of the Rabbit features Detective Inspector Rabbit (Berry), a reckless heavy-drinking (Victorian) London cop, and his hapless ineffectual partner, played by Freddie Fox (Cucumber, Parade’s End).

While the pair investigate a local murder, the tough-talking and insightful adoptive daughter of the chief of police (Susan Wokoma – Chewing Gum, Crazyhead) joins them – incidentally becoming the nation’s first female officer.

Chuckle Time will kick off on 16 June on Channel 5, and is expected to see the pair watch and react to viewer submitted clips in a You’ve Been Framed style.

The twelve, hour-long episodes promise to be “good-natured family entertainment,” Channel 5 revealed, and will also see the duo perform comedy skits and sketches.