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David Walliams and Matt Lucas in 'Come Fly With Me'
BBC America has just announced that it is launching a new comedy block starting Saturday, June 18th. Below is the full release that has gone out to press:
BBC AMERICA LAUNCHES COMEDY BLOCK
General Manager Perry Simon announces Ministry of Laughs showcasing a new generation of British comedy
New York – BBC AMERICA is launching a new, two hour, comedy zone, Ministry of Laughs, beginning Saturday, June 18, 10:00pm – 12:00pm ET/PT.
Ministry of Laughs premieres a raft of award-winning shows, kicking off with some of the most recent irreverent and inventive comedies from the UK. They include: The Inbetweeners, an all-new season of the BAFTA winning comedy; Come Fly With Me, the new project from Matt Lucas and David Walliams, creators and writers of their genre-breaking comedy Little Britain and Friday Night Dinner created and written by Robert Popper (Look Around You, South Park, Peep Show).
Other U.S. premiere titles returning for all-new seasons include award-winning series That Mitchell & Webb Look, The Thick of It and Peep Show. Kicking off the first hour of the slot are U.S. premiere episodes of The Graham Norton Show.
Perry Simon, General Manager, Channels, BBC Worldwide America says: “There’s nothing quite like British comedy and since joining last year one of my key ambitions has been to showcase the very best of it here on BBC AMERICA. In the early days of the channel, The Office broke the mold and virtually reinvented television comedy on both sides of the Atlantic. Ministry of Laughs will deliver a new generation of talented actors, writers and creators who are taking British comedy to a whole new place, and the brilliant Graham Norton Show is the perfect launch pad for this effort.”
• The Inbetweeners (6 x 30) is back for a third season with more tales of awkwardness, idiocy and sexual misadventure from Will (Simon Bird), Simon (Joe Thomas), Jay (James Buckley) and Neil (Blake Harrison). Now in their final year at high school the boys are looking forward to a new era of respect and credibility – and romance. Iain Morris and Damon Beesley are the creators, writers and executive producers. It is a Bwark production for E4 and distributed by DRG. The Inbetweeners premieres Saturday, June 18, 11:00pm ET/PT.
• Come Fly With Me (6 x 30) is a gloriously magnificent mock-documentary set in an airport terminal. Matt Lucas and David Walliams play over 60 characters from flight crew and check-in to paparazzi and passengers. It is a BBC AMERICA/Little Britain Productions/BBC co-production. The executive producers are Jed Leventhal, Little Britain Productions and Mark Freeland and Geoff Posner for the BBC. It’s distributed by BBC Worldwide. Come Fly with Me premieres Saturday, June 18, 11:30 pm ET/PT.
• Friday Night Dinner (6 x 30) written by Robert Popper, is a comedy focused on the experience of a traditional but not strictly observant Jewish family, the Goodmans. Every Friday night, brothers Adam (Simon Bird, The Inbetweeners) and Jonny (Tom Rosenthal) return to their parents’ home for dinner. They consider the weekly event a necessary annoyance – necessary because they get fed, and annoying because, well, they have to spend the evening with Mom (Tamsin Greig, Episodes, Green Wing, Black Books) and Dad (Paul Ritter, The Norman Conquests). Girlfriends are an issue – Jonny’s is made-up and not even the Internet can sort out a female for Adam. It doesn’t help that he writes jingles for toilet roll commercials. It is a Big Talk Productions and Popper Pictures production for Channel 4. Executive producers are Kenton Allen, Nira Park and Caroline Leddy. Friday Night Dinner premieres Saturday, August 6, 11:30pm ET/PT.
• Katy Brand’s Big Ass Show (12 x 30) is a parallel world of original characters and crazy celebrities with big egos and even bigger flaws. With the sword of truth and the shield of chaos at her side, Katy Brand takes on the entire entertainment industry, swills it around in her brain and then spits it out. It is a World’s End Production for ITV2. The Executive Producer is Gregor Cameron and it’s distributed by BBCWW. It premieres Saturday, January 7, 2012 11:30pm ET/PT.
Returning favourites include:
• BAFTA winning sketch show That Mitchell & Webb Look (6 x 30) starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb premiering Saturday, October 1, 11:30pm ET/PT.
• BAFTA winning The Thick of It (8 x 30) starring Peter Capaldi (In the Loop, Torchwood: Children of Earth) as the Prime Minister’s Machiavellian spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker premieres Saturday, November 12, 11:30pm ET/PT.
• Award winning comedy Peep Show (12 x 30) follows the private worlds of Mark (David Mitchell) and Jeremy (Robert Webb), two twenty-something room-mates living in London as the dysfunctional duo try in vain to grow up. It premieres Saturday, March 31, 2012, 11:30pm ET/PT.
17 Comments
Ah yes, nothing quite like watching heavily bleeped shows on BBC America. I so look forward to it……..
Misfits Misfits BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP, oh yeah, not BBC and not UK. Misfits is the funniest show on the planet
What we really want is QI
I’m glad to BBCA is going to finally be airing some comedies again. Now if they would just add some non-sci-fi dramas to their line-up, especially some murder/mystery dramas.
Yes, QI please.
QI would be great. They’d be paying out the butt for image licensing rights though. Sadly there’s a good reason it’s only airing in a couple countries outside the UK.
That said, I’m glad to get comedy back. This is LONG overdue! Maybe we’ll get lucky with the 10pm Saturday night timeslot… a little less censoring would be really appreciated.
MITCHELL & WEBB AND PEEP SHOW!!! AHAHAHA. This makes me very happy. Wait, I have to wait until October and next year? WTF.
Good to see more Graham Norton & Inbetweeners. Tried to watch Friday Night Dinner online the other night, but I much prefer watching shows on tv.
Ooh, excited to see Peter Capaldi in anything.
Needs more numberwang.
QI would be great. Would love to see Russell Howards good news as well. Russell is a hoot. Better still… Gavin and Stacey!!! Not all Americans are obsessed with Doctor Who even though this season has been good.
Come fly with me is not really that funny, not as good as little Britain, please can we have a year off from Gordon Ramsey, we have seen enough of him, Doctor Who and Top Gear are starting to repeat the repeats too much also, what ever happened to Groundforce, Location, Location, City Gardener, Harry Enfield, some of the good shows that started in the early days of BBCA,, some British DIY shows are good also
I’d like to see BBC add some of those great period mini-series to their programming here in the USA. Other then “”The Tudors, are they even making them any more? and I mean those based on great literature like “I, Claudius” or based on period novels etc but new BBC adaptions for television. I’m tired of Sci-Fi and fantasy I can only take so much of junk like “Game of Thrones”.
So the two hour slot of comedy is going to start with an hour of Graham Norton? While I really like his show, I think that although it is frequently amusing, I do not see it as strictly a comedy show. There is loads of UK humour that you could use instead, mine some of the old classics (Porridge, Rising Damp, Men Behaving Badly, Only Fools and Horses, Drop the Dead Donkey, Open All Hours, etc. (I know these are not all BBC, but neither are those listed, I am sure the BBC can work out the distribution rights)).
If fact put anything on to have fewer shows of that total jackass Gordon Ramsey. Just what I like a man who pretends to be a classy chef yelling at people and using the Eff word every other breath!
I cant believe that BBC America shows Star Trek!
Where does that come from?
We can get Star Trek, how about some British stuff?
Wire in the Blood, Silent Witness, Waking the Dead, Touching Evil, god, you could even bring back Softly, Softly, Z-Cars and Dixon of Dock Green, but they’ve probably burnt all the tapes of those!
Hi, I would love more mystery and drama programs on there needs to be variety , what happened to MI 5 , Mistresses , or Location Location, and the B and B inspector shows, I would never change the station if there was some decent programming on, how about it Mr Simon, don’t suppose he will ever see this post.
Yes, QI would be awesome, and “Would I Lie to You?”. Would love some of the older shows, Born and Bred, Monarch of the Glen, Rosemary and Thyme. One Foot in the Grave was hilarious. Butterflies, Fresh Fields and French Fields. How about The Office, Extras? Black Books, Green Wing, Coupling. Not Going Out, Mulberry. Ah, so many great shows!
I wonder if the powers that be are reading these inputs, tonights program’s on Direct
TV, from 6pm until 1 am = 7hours of Gordon ( bleep,bleep ) Ramsey ( bleep ) I am
one of those who just changes to another channel as I am so fed up of him, they should change the name to BBCRamsey, what about Under the Hammer, All Creatures great and small, Dads Army, Bad Lads Army was fun, The Onidin line, Poldark, maybe Benny Hill , he would be better than Star Treck, You are what you eat, I agree with Angela,there are so many good shows that could be put on instead of these non ending repeats on rotation between, Ramsey, Top Gear, Star Treck, they are ok for an hour or two, but BBCA seems to think we like it when you get 6 or 7 hours at a time of the same show.
I agree with the other posts…..How about bringing some of those ‘good old’ British, dry wit, comedies over to us in U.S, like ‘Fools & horses’, ‘Not going out’, ‘Alas Smith & Jones’, etc.; and in the soap opera dept……what about Eastenders,again as I cant seem to watch that here anymore!???
Yes, bring on Q.I. and rerun THE GREEN MAN with Albert Finney; and the 2nd season of LOVE SOUP, please!