Saunders Spoof Leads New BBC Comedy Drive

Comedian Jennifer Saunders and child psychology expert Dr Tanya Byron are teaming up  to collaborate on a new comedy series, one of a raft of pilots ordered by BBC1 controller Peter Fincham. The Vivienne Vyle Show is a spoof on the kind of parenting therapy shows fronted by Byron, who presents BBC3 series Little Angels and The House Of Tiny Tearaways. Saunders plays fictional therapist Vyle.

Produced in-house by BBC producer Jo Sargent, the programme is one of six pilots commissioned by Peter Fincham and BBC controller of comedy Lucy Lumsden, who have made grooming new comedy for the channel a top priority.

Four of the pilots are being produced in-house. Ronni Ancona, star of Big Impression, is to get her own sketch show, produced by Sargent and directed by Ed Bye.

The corporation is making a sketch show with Omid Djalili, executive produced by BBC head of comedy talent Kenton Allen and produced by Alex Walsh Taylor. Allen is also overseeing After You’ve Gone (working title), a comedy about a divorced man’s efforts to look after his children, from My Family producer Fred Barron.

Two of Fincham’s pilots come from indies. My Generation is a co-production between Tiger Aspect and Caryn Mandabach about geriatrics, scripted by Men Behaving Badly writer Simon Nye.

Fire Station, a comedy about firefighters also scripted by Nye, is being produced by Talkback Thames.