Comedy on ITV1

There seems to be a glut of good comedy on ITV1 at the moment!

ITV have been slated for many years now for their 'comedy' output but has certainly picked up the last year or so.

Tonight's Tarrant on TV was back to its former self with some amazing clips! The series did go off for a bit when we all saw the clips previously via clips being sent via the net - but all these were brand spanking new and VERY funny. My fav was the guy who could turn his head 180 degrees and the tasty girl in the changing rooms asking guys to assist her.

The return of Harry Hill (late ) on Friday nights and the return of the Sketch Show and 2d tv later in the year!

ITV arent doing that bad comedy-wise if you include Frank Skinner show, Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned and the forthcoming Fantasy football programs. (also Ant n Dec might be considered comedy aswell!)

Also the new John Culshaw impressionist program sounds VERY interesting aswell!

In Wales there is also a new ten part series of Barry Welsh just begginning aswell!

YAY for comedy on ITV1 Wales!

Yeah...tonight's Tarrant on TV was hilarious with the 180 degree head turn guy...truly wicked stuff!

Much better than ITV News at Ten!

But will Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned be returning??? It is normally on now but haven't heard much said about it recently.

And is it true that Fantasy Football is returning to ITV1 too during Euro 2004? And if so, will Statto be returning too, or is he just doing the horse racing now on BBC1?

Cant see why it wont be returning after the Fantasy Euro Football programs this Summer!

Statto will surely be staying at the beeb this time?

According to Nigel Pickard, Vic and Bob will be on ITV too, and don't forget Director's Commentary either.

Don't forget also Directors Commentary, new series with Vic & Bob and Jo Brand as well as return of Hardware and the Frank Skinner sitcom, "Shane".

I take it you posted at the same time as me?

Aren't Vic Reeves and Steve Coogan supposed to writing a sketch show for itv that they and Bob Mortimer will star in?

Then in April Dave Spikey's comedy goes into production for itv.
i didn't know that the Sketch Show and 2DTV were returning, great news!

We've also got the second series of Hardware coming.
I hope they aren't doing Unplanned due to Baddiel & Skinner doing Fantasy Football. I'd like to see both. Unplanned is Great! Especially in its live format.

Then theres Frank Skinner's comedy 'Shane', that goes into production soon.

Certainly this September will be a great line up for comedy.

I just hope that they free up the 10pm slot for them. 11pm is far too late for many viewers, and putting great comedy like Director's Commentary and TV Burp.

Sketch Show is over as far as I was aware.

I don't know about Statto as he does the horse racing coverage on the BBC, but apparently Paul Gascgoine has signed up to be another side kick on the programme to replace Jeff Astle who died in 2002 according to Digital Spy.

So we apparently have the following to look foward to:

Baddiel and Skinner/ Fantasy Football
2DTV (Series 4)
The Sketch Show (Series 3)
New programme by Vic, Bob and Steve Coogan
Dave Spikey's sticom about a newsroom for a free local paper
Harry Hill's TV Burp (Series 3)
Directors Commentary
Something with Jo Brand (According to Pickard's interview)
Shane (With Frank Skinner)
Hardware (Series 2, Series 1 being repeated starting this week)

To be honest that looks like a good line up for ITV, as I would say that is only one of the few parts of ITV which are improving. Though I want Baddiel and Skinner to come back as that is really funny. Though it would be cool if they signed up more people to the channel, even though the line up looks great. As for some reason you could imagine someone like Peter Kay having his own show on ITV. Plus they should also show a bit of stand up every now and again as they're good, even though most of it is done for Video or DVD.

Is it? I know the last series wasn't as good as the first, but I thought ITV liked it, as they have sold the idea to American TV. I wouldn't have minded a third run of the programme as it did have its strong points. Well I think Tim Vine should have his own show anyway.

The Jo Brand thing is starting as a one off, if that's successful it'll become a series.
It's a comedy set in a nunnery. Jo is a nun, Honor Blackmann is Mother Superior.

On way that they could get round the stand up thing is to bring back the 'An Audience With...' shows containing famous comedians. I wonder if they've approached Peter Kay about something? He was fantastic in Corrie, you'd have thought if they'd liked that they would have approached him for another project. But of course now he is a father, he may want to take a break for a bit to spend time with his wife and kid.

Perhaps they could do something along the lines of the comedy store where they have comedians doing short sets, perhaps two each show, that would fill half an hour!

I saw Unplanned on Paramount the other day, they were on about the show being sold to other countries... a clip of the spanish(?) version was shown with weird presenters. It looked a bit creepy.

Anyone know how many countries now have Unplanned?