28 new British TV comedies for 2019 and beyond

Iain Morris and Damon Beesley, aka The Inbetweeners creators, are writing a six-part half-hour sitcom for BBC Two. Currently going by the working title of Afternoons, it’s details the off-pitch adventures of three Premier League footballers (playing for a fictional team), “three young men who just happen to have a very stressful job in the public eye,” according to the writers. Casting is yet to be announced.

Back To Life

Daisy Haggard and Laura Solon’s terrific Back To Life is a six-part BBC Three comedy that aired earlier this year in the Monday night comedy slot on BBC One. Haggard (Episodes, Uncle) plays Mirri, a woman who moves back in to her childhood home after serving an 18-year prison sentence for a crime committed as a teenager. Filmed in Hythe, Kent, it’s about small communities, secrets and the difficulty of leaving the past behind.

Brassic

Any show with the inventive, unpredictable energy of Joseph Gilgun (Preacher, Misfits, This Is England) is worth looking out for, and this new Sky comedy promises to have double helpings as it’s based loosely on Gilgun’s own experiences of growing up broke in Lancashire. Coming to Sky, it stars Gilgun, Michelle Keegan and Damien Molony and here’s the first trailer.

Breeders

After their excellent 2014 relationship comedy Trying Again, Chris Addison and Simon Blackwell (Veep, The Thick Of It) have teamed up to write a new series, this time about the trials of parenthood. Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard (see Back To Life, above) will play parents in this ten-part half-hour comedy, a co-production between Sky in the UK and FX in the US.  

Code 404

After last year’s pilot, Sky ordered six episodes of this sci-fi comedy starring Daniel Mays (Line Of Duty, Vera Drake) and Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire, The Virtues), written by Mongrels and Not Going Out’s Daniel Peak. It’s a buddy cop drama set in the near future, which sees crime-fighting duo DI John Major (Mays) and DI Roy Carver (Graham) first separated, then reunited thanks to the wonders of modern science.

Dead Pixels

There’s no official word yet on whether Jon Brown’s gaming comedy Dead Pixels will return for a second series, but it richly deserves to. It’s the story of Meg and Nicky (Alexa Davies and Will Merrick), two dedicated gamers heavily invested in fictional MMORPG Kingdom Scrolls, and their non-gaming flatmate Alison (Charlotte Ritchie). It’s sharply written, strongly performed and boasts very diverting CG animation from the world of the game. All six episodes are available to stream on All4.

Don’t Forget The Driver

This Bognor-set comedy about a package tour coach driver may have looked twee at the outset, but it was anything but. Over six half-hour episodes Don’t Forget The Driver, co-created by playwright Tim Crouch and actor Toby Jones (Detectorists, Marvellous), told a timely and involving story of immigration in a British seaside town, with no shortage of laughs and real feeling too. It aired earlier this year on BBC Two.

Ellie & Natasia

So far, this sketch show, currently available to stream on BBC iPlayer, only has one episode but watch it, spread far and wide the news of how funny it is, and fingers crossed they’ll make a whole series. It’s the work of comedians Ellie White (The Windsors, House Of Fools) and Natasia Demetriou (What We Do In The Shadows) and is clever, silly, modern and timeless in all the right measures.

Frayed

A UK-Australian co-production, Frayed was created by and stars comedian Sarah Kendall as a wealthy housewife in 1989 London whose life is turned upside down, forcing her to return to her home town in Australia. Kendall is joined in the cast by Diane Morgan and Robert Webb. The six episode first series is expected to arrive on Sky and ABC in early 2020.

Ghosts

From the cast of Horrible Histories, Ghosts is a total delight, which makes it extremely gratifying that series two has already been ordered. It’s a six-part series about a couple (Charlotte Ritchie and Kiell Smith-Bynoe) who end up living in a manor house haunted by the ghosts of people who died there throughout history. Silly, fun, sometimes moving and filled with great comic performances from the likes of Simon Farnaby, Jim Howick and Katy Wix – you still have a month to catch up on BBC iPlayer if you missed it on release.

Glass Houses

Commissioned in March this year by ITV, Glass Houses is a six-part hour long comedy series starring Dawn French, Mark Heap, Julie Hesmondhalgh, Vicki Pepperdine and more. It’s about the aftermath of a loose-lipped radio interview with French’s Maggie, the village gossip who spills her neighbours’ secrets on air. It comes written by Shameless and Benidorm’s Mark Brotherhood.

Hitmen (w/t)

Comedy double act Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins get in on the Killing Eve game as contract killers in this new Sky series. Unlike Villanelle though, these two are decidedly unsmooth operators. Their hits are, according to the press release, “inevitably derailed by incompetence, bickering, and inane antics.” Sherlock’s Amanda Abbington co-stars, along with Francis Barber and Johnny Vegas.

In My Skin

Kayleigh Llewellyn’s autobiographically inspired 2018 pilot is becoming a four-part comedy series for the BBC. It’s the raw but ultimately uplifting story of teenager Bethan’s attempts to conceal from her schoolfriends a chaotic homelife with a mother sectioned in a mental health facility and a dad in the Hell’s Angels. Here’s a clip from the Comedy Slice to whet your appetite. Filming is due to begin later this year.

Intelligence

This year’s already seen Rob Lowe in Lincolnshire, now prepare for David Schwimmer in Cheltenham. The Friends actor and director will star in a six-part Sky One comedy as a “maverick NSA agent” working in the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters. He’ll be joined by series writer Nick Mohammed, who’ll play an inept computer analyst tasked with tackling cyber-crime.

Mister Winner

Following a successful Comedy Playhouse pilot, Spencer Jones (Upstart Crow) is back as the hapless Leslie Winner for a six-episode series on BBC One. Joining Jones will be Shaun Williamson and Lucy Pearman, in a loveable comedy about “an eternally optimistic klutz with his heart in the right place”.

Mae And George (w/t)

Stand-up Mae Martin has co-written an autobiographically inspired six-episode series with Joe Hampson, which goes by the working title Mae And George. It’s coming to E4 in the UK and Netflix around the world, and follows Martin’s life as a comedian and recovering addict, and the complications of her new relationship with girlfriend George. Friends’ Lisa Kudrow is attached to star.

Scarborough

Written and directed by Benidorm’s Derren Litten, Scarborough stars stand-up Jason Manford and Coronation Street’s Catherine Tyldesley as Mike and Karen, a couple giving their relationship one last go after Mike gave up his dream of life as a professional entertainer. Set between the local pub and local hair salon, this six-part BBC One sitcom also stars Stephanie Cole.

Semi-Detached

The pilot episode for comedy Semi-Detached, about a hapless fortysomething aired in January and there’s been no word yet of a full series being commissioned. It was written by actors David Crow and Oliver Maltman and boasted a strong comedy cast including Lee Mack, Ellie White, Samantha Spiro, Clive Russell and Patrick Baladi. The twist with this one is that all the action unfurls in real time.