Rare footage of Bill Hicks has been unearthed for a new documentary for American TV.

Comedienne Janeane Garofalo will narrate the 70-minute programme Outlaw Comic: The Censoring of Bill Hicks whrn it airs on cable's Trio Network next month.

"I think Bill Hicks wanted to confront people with the fact that there are more deeply rooted problems in America that most want to recognise," producer Rob Sanborn told industry website Design In Motion.

"He was about enlightenment and accountability, without a shred of concern about political correctness or tact."

The show will feature bootleg video of Hick's live shows, and will particularly focus on the notorious incident when he was dropped from the David Letterman show in 1993. Letterman, a friend of Hicks, originally claimed that network censors vetoed his routine, though it later emerged that his own production company pulled the plug.

Outlaw Comic has been produced by Big Shoe Production Company and marks a revival of interest in the US over the comedian, who died of pancreatic cancer in 1994 at the age of 32, following Cynthia True's biography American Scream last year.

And a CD of Hicks' stand-up recorded at the Oxford Playhouse has just been released. Click here to buy.