This is a list of new comedy pilots that have been announced by production companies (or well-known comedy writers). These projects are listed here because we either don't yet know whether the project will make it to the broadcast stage (most pilots are never seen), or because we don't yet have enough details to create a full guide to the show. Pilots that are definitely going to be broadcast can be found on our new comedy list.
Circus
A sitcom starring John Thomson as an angry clown; Tony Robinson as an embittered accountant and part-time acrobat; Jeff Rawle as a depressed human cannonball; Ruth Madoc as a dog trainer; and Amanda Holden as the ring mistress.
Above Their Stations
Above Their Stations is a new sitcom written by and starring Rhys Thomas (Star Stories, Fun At The Funeral Parlour, Nathan Barley, The Fast Show). Pounding rural Essex's mean streets, Perry (Thomas) is a maverick. He reckons he's Vange Police's most lethal weapon. But he isn't even a cop. He really, really wants to be, but he isn't - he's a Police Community... Full Details
You Have Been Watching
A new show about the workings of TV, hosted by Charlie Brooker (see also the existing Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe). The pilot, filmed in front of a live audience, features Brooker and guests 'casting their eyes over the week's TV, both home grown and from around the world'.
Working Class
A new sitcom for BBC Scotland about senior citizens written by Donald McLeary from Radio 4's Fags, Mags and Bags. The Stage reports a script for the series, which will be aimed at a pre-watershed family audience, has been commissioned by the BBC but, at the time of writing, no roles have been cast. The pilot will be produced by The Comedy Unit. More details can be found via The Stage's... Full Details
Brave Young Men
A new sitcom pilot described as a comedy take on Quantum Leap. Tom Basden will play a school caretaker who has to save the world each week. The caretaker is helped by a civil servant who has travelled back in time.
A pilot episode, which is based around a beer that contains a virus which will wipe out humanity, will be filmed in 2009. Brave Young Men is written by Tom... Full Details
Simon Says
Simon Munnery delivers his low down on life. Using stand-up comedy, music, and top comedy guest, Reginald D Hunter, the programme tackles some of life's big issues.
Playing Shop
A new live audience studio sitcom written by and starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. They play Eric and Jamie, two of the most dynamic, practical and driven men ever to try and run a business out of a garden shed. Convinced that everyone else involved in commerce are idiots, they think that this insight alone will make them millionaires.
To such men, redundancy is just an... Full Details
The Full Montgomery
Lucy Montgomery from Tittybangbang and Down the Line tried out sketches in November at the Hen And Chickens Theatre. The recordings were on Sunday 9, Friday 21 and Thursday 27 November 2008.
The Anna and Katy Show
BBC Radio 2 sketch show pilot starring Anna Crilly (Lead Balloon) and Katy Wix (Not Going Out) based on their 2005 and 2006 Edinburgh shows. The show is recorded on the 11th December 2008 at The Drill Hall.
Down The Line
A TV version of Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson's spoof Radio 4 phone-in show Down The Line. DJ Gary Bellamy travels around the country meeting quirky characters in the process. Starring Rhys Thomas, Simon Day, Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson.
Life And Other Distractions
New 13-part comedy drama written and produced by Simon Pegg. The show will be a light drama about a family aimed at younger viewers, Pegg told The Guardian. "My involvement will be limited but I want to be a showrunner and have script control. I was interested in that age group, having grown up with shows like Grange Hill, and I wanted to do something outside my comfort zone. It's... Full Details
Jim Jeffries Sitcom
Sitcom starring controversial Australian comedian Jim Jeffries. The half-hour pilot, which is being made for Paramount Comedy, sees Jeffries play a foul-mouthed software millionaire. Broadcast says his character is "searching for meaning in his life, but he only ever ends up having meaningless sex with attractive women and shows little consideration for his friends who still have to earn... Full Details
Armstrong And Miller Sitcom
Sitcom which will star Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller. The project is described as 'a slacker sitcom about office temps'. It is written by Louis Waymouth and Jamie Lennox who came to notice via their web series The Very Real Adventures of Batman and Robin on ComedyBox.
Miller says the series is about "that period in your life when everything is temporary - you've... Full Details
The Men From The Pru
A highly notable in-development project as it has been written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant. The Men At The Pru is a 'coming-of-age' tale about two friends who work for the Prudential, then a building society, amid the concrete 'glamour' of Reading. It is being described as Mad Men meets The Office. If all goes to plan the comedy will be filmed in May or June 2009.... Full Details
Second Life
Second Life (a working title) comes from writing duo Tess Morris and Sophie Hetherington.
The Intern Project
The Intern Project (working title) is a new sitcom project from Suburban Shootout writers Roger Beckett and Gary Martin.
Deadbeats
Deadbeats (a working title) is a new sitcom from writer Paul Rose (Dani's House, Biffovision).
All The Queens Men
All the Queens Men is a new narrative project from Snuffbox writer/perfomers Matt Berry and Rich Fulcher.
CSI Nigeria
CSI Nigeria, a working title, is billed as a 'fish out of water' comedy from writers Andi Osho (Tonightly) and Israel Oyelumade (Video Nation) about a Nigerian police officer on secondment in suburban middle England.
Hash
Hash centres on the inept owner of an exclusive members club. It comes from Neill Southgate (The Friday Night Project), Nick Wealthall (Comedy Lab) and The Dawson Brothers (That Mitchell and Webb Look).
Things Talk
A sitcom performed by puppets.
Vidiotic
A comedy project for BBC3. No other details are known at this time.
Adam's Family
A pilot episode of a new single-camera comedy commissioned by ITV. Adam's Family is told from the point of view of a video diary kept by a young teenage boy who is coming to terms with his new 'blended family' after one of his parents decides to re-marry.
The comedy was originally planned for the BBC, with the script written by Maya Forbes, Jack Williams and Harry Williams.... Full Details
Little White Lies
Hat Trick Productions is developing a sitcom based on the stage show created and performed at the 2007 Edinburgh Fringe Festival by comedian Isabel Fay.
The comedy is based on Fay's successful stage show, Altar Ego, which focuses on a character called Blodwin. She is an employee at an old people's home, who creates a fictional boyfriend to silence the staff who taunt her about her... Full Details
Home
Little Britain star David Walliams has been working with Rob Brydon on this sitcom script. The plan is for Walliams and Brydon to play two constantly bickering brothers who run a care home. Ronnie Corbett will also star as a playboy OAP - the only male resident in the home which is otherwise populated by female pensioners.
This pilot has been on our list for about three... Full Details
Shush
Sitcom pilot described as 'a stupid narrative comedy set in a municipal library'. Originally piloted in 2006, a second pilot was filmed in October 2008.
The comedy is produced by Armando Iannucci and written by Morwenna Banks, Rebecca Front and Father Ted writer Arthur Mathews.
The original un-successful pilot for the show was recorded at BBC TV Centre in... Full Details
Ardal O'Hanlon Sitcom
Comedy series written by Father Ted star Ardal O'Hanlon about a cable TV channel in western Ireland.
Thor Sitcom
A sitcom about the Norse god of thunder written by Stewart Lee. Optioned by an independent production company.
The Brontes
Sitcom about The Bronte Sisters created and produced by Siobhan Rhodes-Johnson for Tiger Aspect. The series is written and performed by Bridget Christie, Colin Hoult, Joanna Neary and Isy Suttie. Stewart Lee is the director and script editor.
Hibbert and Long
Comedy pilot for ITV1 written by Peep Show creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. Billed as a modern take on BBC classic The Liver Birds, the sitcom follows the lives of two flatmates in their late twenties. The pilot of Hibbert and Long starred stand-up comedian Kerry Godliman, Lucy Montgomery (Tittybangbang), Tom Ellis and Simon Day (The Fast Show). Produced by ITV... Full Details
Adam and Eve
A new romantic comedy from Coupling creator Steven Moffat. It tells the story of a boss called Adam and his PA, called Eve. They have known each other all their lives but never got together. The writer is describing the show as being about 'a love story that never happens'. The BBC have shown an interest in the show, which is being produced by Hartswood Films, but have not yet formally... Full Details
Candy Chops
A Curb Your Enthusiasm-style sitcom pilot by Kelly Marcel and actor Tom Hardy which tells the story of aspiring rap artist Ethx. Candy Chops is being made in association with Rob Brydon's new production company Arbie.
Bewitched
A BBC remake of Bewitched, the classic American sitcom which ran for eight series on ABC in the States between 1964 and 1972. The sitcom follows the life and adventures of Samantha, a witch married to a suburban advertising executive.
The original sitcom is being adapted for a modern UK audience by My Hero creator Paul Mendelson. The pilot, filmed in early 2008,... Full Details
Hey Hey We're the Monks
Thirty-one, unemployed and single, Gary Woodcroft (played by James Corden from Gavin and Stacey) has never done a single useful thing in his life. Allowed, through some clerical error, to collect benefits uninterrupted for 18 years, Gary has cost the taxpayer more than the war. But all that is about to change.
There aren't many places so chronically understaffed that they'd... Full Details
Terry Across The Mersey
Terry Across the Mersey is about a chancer who leads a complicated and risky double life. The tag line of the show is: 'Two lives, two wives and too much to lose'. The pilot starred Dean Sullivan (best known for playing Jimmy Corkhill in Brookside) as Terry Valentine and other confirmed cast members include Suzanne Collins, Anne-Marie Davies, Pauline Fleming, Louis Emerick, Stephen... Full Details
Vic and Bob Superhero Sitcom
Vic Reeves has announced that he and comedy partner Bob Mortimer are working on a new sitcom. Reeves told North-East newspaper The Journal: "It's about super heroes who get skills through a telegraph pole that malfunctions and they go around helping people in their local community."
Arcadia
Arcadia is a youthful sitcom pilot "from the makers of The IT Crowd" (we assume this means TalkbackThames). It is set around Clacton's finest computer games shop Games 4 U. The shop is in financial trouble and ever-so-slightly neurotic manager Tony (Nick Mohammed) is doing his best to keep things afloat, ably assisted by Mr Sci-Fi convention himself, Jeremy Stokes (Matt... Full Details
Grandma's House
Sitcom by Never Mind the Buzzcocks' host Simon Amstell, based on his own upbringing in a Jewish family produced by Tiger Aspect.
This sitcom was reportedly filmed in March 2008 in a house in Gants Hill, Ilford. It is believed that the house is near where Amstell's grandparents lived when he was young.
The Friday Night Club
Pilot about a disparate but devoted group of 20-somethings, friends since Uni, who go their own way all week but meet up every Friday evening at the same bar to decide how to spend the evening... or even the weekend. The pilot, which was filmed in March 2008, starred Rosalind Halstead, Nigel Harman (EastEnders), Rhodri Meilir (My Family), Sarah Smart and Sheridan... Full Details
Bob Mortimer Sitcom
Sitcom written by Bob Mortimer. Mackenzie Crook and Iain Lee star as two guys who live together. "Crazy things happen, like Rod Stewart sending an electrified box with 75 quid in it. The guys try to break into it but keep getting shocks."
Zoom
Radio sitcom featuring Mark Evans and fellow Mitchell and Webb writer James Bachman. This is the description: Set in a world just like ours - only sillier and a lot more exciting - Zoom features the adventures of flatmates James and Mark and their ex-Special forces neighbour, Ken. In the pilot episode James and Mark - lifelong friends, lifelong rivals - find their world turned... Full Details