UKTV

Richard Ayoade, David Mitchell and Tom Allen are among the talent making their debuts for the channel.

In Outsiders, David Mitchell will challenge three pairs of comedians across six episodes to a series of outdoor challenges.

Ed Gamble, Jamali Maddix, Jessica Knappett, Kerry Godliman, Lou Sanders and Toussaint Douglass will take part in the first series.

Mitchell said: “Civilisation is clearly crumbling so it’s high time we worked out whether we can cope without it.

The new series will see the return of Les Vegas (Sanjeev Bhaskar), Emily Verma (Natalie Dew), and will welcome new character Donna Vegas, Emily’s estranged mother, played by Tracy-Ann Oberman. 

Series one ended with Les running back to the sea, this time with daughter Emily in tow, as they try to evade the ruthless One Eyed Man (Hugh Bonneville).

Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Killing Eve) and Thalissa Teixeira (Trigonometry) will join Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) in the modern-day Faustian thriller following a trio of detectives attempting to solve a series of horrific murders.

Lloyd-Hughes stars as the newly reinstated DS Nathan Rose, with Teixeira playing his boss and best friend, DI Emily Baxter. Hale will play the unit’s newest recruit, DC Lake Edmunds.

Each hour of television produced leaves a ­carbon footprint of 9.2 tonnes, which is the equivalent of two households’ annual consumption. This startling figure is the average across all genres – quadruple it for drama.

That was the top line given by Roser Canela Mas of Albert, the pan-industry body set up to help make television production sustainable, at an RTS panel discussion, “Producing sustainable TV – myth or reality?”.

Inside the Ambulance: Wonder Woman will follow the extraordinary women who have appeared in the regular series Inside the Ambulance over the last five years, showing their bravery, compassion and camaraderie.

Exclusive interviews of the women off duty and at home will reveal the everyday lives of these women behind the green uniforms. 

Viewers will be reminded of some of the most heart-wrenching stories and heart-stopping rescues. 

The second series will see the return of Molly Windsor as Emma Hedges, Martin Compston as Daniel Macafee. Laura Fraser as professor Sarah Gordon, Jennifer Spence as professor Kathy Torrance and Michael Nardone as DCI Neil McKinven. 

Based on an idea by crime writer Val McDermid, Traces allows forensic science to take centre stage, set in Scotland at the Scottish Institute of Forensic Science. 

Anthology series 

The four-part anthology series will see UKTV team up with TriForce Creative Network, an organisation that works to remove obstacles stopping diverse and emerging talent from progressing in the industry. 

The multi-step process will use TriForce’s WriterSlam platform, which is known for discovering writers from all backgrounds, and ask for writing scripts across a range of topics and genres. 

The iconic duo will pair up once again to film on the set of their classic sketch show to talk about the wealth of female contributions to the comedy landscape across history and across the globe. 

They will discuss the women who were the very first trailblazers in the industry, to those who inspired a young French and Saunders and today’s generation of comedy stars. 

The special will be a fun and eye-opening celebration of the many women in comedy past and present. 

The documentary will reveal never-before-seen footage of rehearsals and what really occurred behind the scenes. 

Produced by Expectation, the special will see Dawn French and Richard Curtis partner talk about their favourite moments from the sitcom with writer Paul Mayhew-Archer, producer Jon Plowman and James Fleet, who played Hugo Horton, and guest stars such as Hugh Bonneville, Kylie and Joanna Lumley. 

Dawn French commented: “It was a total treat to revisit such a happy place and time for this documentary. Part of my heart is still, and forever will be in Dibley.”