BSkyB carries on with comedy

UK satcaster BSkyB is beginning “phase two” of its comedy development slate with a project from the creators of the BBC’s Outnumbered.

A satirical comedy from Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, who were recently commissioned by the BBC to write more episodes of Outnumbered, is currently in the works at Sky Atlantic.

Speaking at BFI Southbank yesterday, Sky’s head of comedy Lucy Lumsden said that the initial slate of original comedies on Sky1 had “landed well” to make the satcaster a “big player” in the UK comedy industry.

Since becoming BSkyB’s first head of comedy in 2009, Lumsden has commissioned shows such as Trollied, Spy and Little Crackers for Sky1, all of which have been recommissioned, and brought two specials featuring Steve Coogan’s character Alan Partridge to Sky Atlantic.

Referencing Sky’s aim to invest £600m (US$937m) a year in British programmes across its channels until 2014, Lumsden said: “When you have something the scale of Sky working in this area, it opens up a lot of opportunities.”

Last week Sky1 announced a raft of new shows and renewals https://www.c21media.net/archives/83652, including more episodes of a number of comedy series that are yet to debut on the channel, such as Moone Boy, produced by Coogan’s Baby Cow.

Lumsden said her vision for future comedy series on BSkyB includes a move away from Sky1’s recent drama-focused autobiographical comedies, such as The Café and Mount Pleasant, towards shows that “may have banana skins in them – literally or not.”

She added that she was “craving different flavours” on Sky1 and is looking for a stand-up comedian to lead a traditional audience sitcom on the channel.

Speaking about her experience at Sky, Lumsden said she was enjoying not having the same “weight of legacy” behind her as she did while in the same role at the BBC. However, she also spoke of her reservations about Sky’s comedy slate expanding too fast, too soon.

“The pool of talent is not enormous. A mistake has been made in the past to say ‘comedy is the new thing’ and to then go fishing [for content] on a huge scale. I will take calculated risks. We shouldn’t make the mistake of thinking we should try everything,” she said.

Lumsden was speaking as Sky added on-demand content from its four entertainment channels, Sky1, Sky Atlantic, Sky Living and Sky Arts 1, to its online viewing platform Sky Go. This content is in addition to the sports and movie programming Sky Go also hosts, which can be viewed via the Xbox 360 console, PC, Mac and all compatible mobile devices.