Comedy

Rose Matafeo on Starstruck, fangirling and the romcom renaissance

Rose Matafeo as Jessie in Starstruck (credit: BBC/Avalon UK/Mark Johnson)

For comedian Rose Matafeo’s friend, this actually happened. “I’ll never reveal who it was, it’s like a blind item on Deuxmoi,” Matafeo slyly grins, referring to the Instagram page notorious for posting cryptic celebrity gossip.

The anecdote became a key inspiration behind her new romcom series Starstruck, in which Matafeo plays Jessie, a 28-year-old New Zealander living in London who discovers the morning after a one-night stand that she has just slept with a famous film star.

Gold confirms a second series of Sandylands

Credit: UKTV

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).

Filming begins on the second series of Ladhood

Credit: BBC

From writer, actor and comedian Liam Williams, Ladhood explores the highs and lows of teenage life.

Williams explores the roots and realities of modern-day masculinity by looking at his own memories of a misspent adolescence.   

Series two will follow a teenage Williams (Oscar Kennedy), with his best mates Ralph (Samuel Bottomley), Addy (Aquib Khan) and Craggy (Shaun Thomas), tackle the fun and hardships of being a teenager in a Leeds suburb in the early noughties. 

UKTV announces diverse anthology series and new writers’ initiative for underrepresented talent

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. 

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders to reunite for French and Saunders: Funny Women

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. 

David Mitchell, Robert Webb and writer Simon Blackwell discuss series two of Back

Robert Webb and David Mitchell

Mitchell is Stephen, a man who has failed as a husband, a lawyer and at running his late father’s pub. Worse, he’s been usurped in his family’s affections by the charismatic Andrew (Webb), supposedly a former foster child of Stephen’s parents.

“I like to pay the comic mattress on which people jump up and down – there’s a lot of comedy and fun acting to be had from the character that things are happening to,” said Mitchell.

He described Stephen as “disappointed and self-loathing and endlessly self-doubting, also intelligent and little bit angry.”

How a parenting nightmare inspired Sky One’s Breeders

The dream occurred five or six years ago. “I knew I’d gone through this many times in real life. I was going up the stairs to shout at my children,” he recalls.     

“With each step I was talking myself down ‘You know you’re better than this and they won’t respond positively.’  

“I thought I’d got the better of my temper before I opened the children’s bedroom door, but I opened the door and exploded.”  

BBC Three commissions new entertainment show from Dane Baptiste

At its centre is the mythical NASBLAQ, a Stock index for diverse talent which controls their movement up and down the ladder of fame.

In this pilot, Dane and his cast will investigate the workings of the NASBLAQ and attempt to crack the code to success with a series of sketches, stunts, interviews and social campaigns.

US comedy series Twenties is coming to BBC Three

Credit: BBC

Written and created by Lena Waithe, Twenties is inspired by Waithe's own life and follows Hattie (Jonica T. Gibbs), an aspiring young black lesbian writer. Hattie and her friends Marie (Christina Elmore) and Nia (Gabrielle Graham) fight to realise their dreams while living in LA.

While homeless and struggling to make her dreams a reality, Hattie meets a successful writer and producer who gives her a chance and hires her as an assistant on a show.