The Stage

BBC3 unveils winter comedy line-up

Published Thursday 14 December 2006 at 17:20 by Liz Thomas

Rob Brydon and Alison Steadman will star in a new comedy for BBC3 penned by Little Britain’s Ruth Jones and The History Boys’ James Corden.

Entitled Gavin and Stacey, the series follows young love across two nations and also features Mathew Horne, known for his parts in The Catherine Tate Show and Teachers.

The channel has also commissioned a broadband-only comedy as part of its move to attract younger audiences across different platforms. The Cowards is a four-man sketch show.

Meanwhile Danny King has reworked his acclaimed novel The Burglar Diaries into a new comedy thriller set in the underworld of the petty criminal - it’s called Thieves Like Us. Touch Me, I’m Karen Taylor is a new series in which the Bafta award-winning comedian mixes sketches, stand-up and comic characters.

In other comedy highlights for BBC3’s winter season, Rush Hour is a new sketch show that looks at the morning scrum to get into work, and Comedy Shuffle With Rob Rouse is billed as a talent showcase, compered by Rouse and featuring a host of comic performers, writers and animators.

Popular series returning to the broadcaster include Rob Brydon’s Annually Retentive, Ideal starring Johnny Vegas as the hapless Moz, and The Office producer Ash Atalla’s sketch show Man Stroke Woman.

BBC3 controller Julian Bellamy said: “We are firing on all cylinders this winter/spring with a huge range of homegrown programmes not seen anywhere else in the digital world, and giving our younger audience an incredibly rich and diverse mix.”