Comedy

The Mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk is a weird and wonderful place to be, as the first BBC Two series in 2019 demonstrated to the nation. Each of the 15-minute episodes saw comedian Spencer Jones’s alter ego navigate the basic tasks of adulting while distracted by his own imagination as conveyed through surreal sketches and musical mayhem.

Ahead of its second series, last month, an RTS event gave a preview of the action to come – and insight into the psyche of Jones, a Bafta and Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee.

When a new BBC Three comedy made its low-key debut in the spring of 2007, no one imagined that Gavin & Stacey would go on to become the comedic equivalent of a national treasure. 

Despite its two writers’ utter lack of experience as screenwriters – James Corden and Ruth Jones had met as actors on Kay Mellor’s slimming club drama for ITV, Fat Friends – it soon became clear that here was a startlingly original show blessed by a group of fully realised characters, a script crackling with wit and an unusually brilliant cast. 

The three-part series is set in the eponymous working-class market town in the East Midlands.

Morgana Robinson stars as the tired and truculent matriarch Maxine, who manages a local chip shop.

Maxine is trying to ride out her divorce and search for a new flame, but her dullard ex-husband Terry (Mathew Horne) is trying ever more desperately to win her back. Meanwhile her vulnerable son Leslie (Jai Hollis) has just come out as gay.

Creator and writer Nathan Foad (The Young Offenders) said: “Making Newark, Newark is my wildest dream come true.

The comedy star is currently on tour with his new stand-up show Right Here Right Now.

Every week for six weeks, Bishop will perform his trademark everyman stand-up and chat to celebrity guests in front of a live studio audience. The interviewees will include some of the biggest names in showbiz and sport.

Bishop will also invite stand-ups from around the world to perform on the show.

Written by and starring Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani, Chivalry will explore the hot topic of gender politics in the #MeToo era in the film and television industries.

Wanda Sykes (Blackish) stars as astute studio executive Jean Shrill, who arranges for indie filmmaker Bobby Sohrabi (Solemani) to take over as director of “A Little Death”, a problematic movie produced by Cameron O’Neill (Coogan).

Cameron is striving to keep his name in lights but the threat of cancel culture looms large.

Written, directed by and starring Diane Morgan (Motherland) in the titular role, the series follows Mandy, a woman with big dreams of becoming a Doberman pincher dog breeder.

As Mandy attempts to find fulfilment in a series of short-lived jobs in the modern-day gig economy, she tries her hand at everything from going on a reality show to becoming a tour guide and learning to swim.

I Literally Just Told You will be the first game show in history to provide all the answers to the contestants while the questions are written as the show goes on.

Commenting on his inspiration for the show, creator Richard Bacon said: “I Literally Just Told You just feels like a natural Channel 4 show, who are a perfect fit for this, and it’s irreverent nature takes me back to my Big Breakfast days.

Almost exactly two years ago, I was invited by this magazine to muse on what was then a wave of “sad-coms” or “dramedies”, those shows playing not quite for laughs but more for wry, sympathetic chuckles at the vicissitudes of life. The success of Detectorists, Back to Life, Don’t Forget the Driver, Ricky Gervais’s After Life, Mum and This Country served to prove that small-screen gags would, from now on, be accompanied by gulps in the throat. 

The comedy show sees the nation’s best comics and favourite celebrities reveal personal stories to convince Mel Giedroyc that they are the most unforgivable person. 

Each episode viewers will get to discover three celebrities' most morally bankrupt behaviour, sins and lies, prompted by Giedroyc and her assistant, comedian Lou Sanders, to find out all the gory details of their indiscretions.

Series one saw celebrities like Jennifer Saunders, Jo Brand, Graham Norton, Gemma Collins and Harry Redknapp reveal their unforgivable secrets. 

Picture the last few female Muslim characters you saw on television and you’re bound to include one of the following stereotypes: a conservative mother, an oppressed adult or a woman in a burqa with no dialogue or personality.