Comedy

The thing I absolutely adore about being Scottish is that it doesn’t matter where I gig in Scotland, it’s a homecoming gig. If you’re a scouse comedian, your homecoming gig is in Liverpool. If you’re a Manchester comedian, your homecoming gig is Manchester. If you’re a London comic, you’re fucked because nobody cares.

But the joyous thing about being Scottish is that the Scots are disgustingly supportive of their own. They’re loyal to a fault. It’s just nice because it’s “local boy done good” regardless of where I am in Scotland. I love that.

The live episode is the twenty-fifth story to come out of the RTS award-winning series. The comedy duo, who will write and perform in the live special, will be joined by guest star Stephanie Cole (Still Open All Hours).

Dead Line focuses on the unfortunate Arthur Flitwick (Steve Pemberton), as he discovers a mysterious old mobile phone in a local graveyard.

Unknown to him, the phone is tied to dark mystical forces and when Flitwick attempts to contact the owner, his good deed goes punished and he is forced into his own living nightmare.

Produced by Tiger Aspect, Hitmen (working title) will be a six-part original comedy that tells the story of contract killers Jamie (Mel Giedroyc) and Fran (Sue Perkins). The duo are not your average assassins, however, nor the most professional, as the pair botch up assassinations and work from a scruffy van. Their incompetence sees the pair thrown into ridiculous adventures, testing their friendship along the way.

Andrew Scott joins a returning cast which includes Olivia Colman (Godmother), Sian Clifford (Claire), Bill Paterson (Dad), Brett Gelman (Martin), Jenny Rainsford (Boo) and Hugh Skinner (Harry).

According to Executive Producer Lydia Hampson, Waller-Bridge began writing the new series in January this year, and the results, promises BBC Comedy boss Shane Allen, are “knockout”. 

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!