Comic Tommy Little hosts

Australia is to make its own version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Comedian Tommy Little will host ten episodes of the improv format for The Comedy Channel, which has previously aired the US version of the show.

The news comes as some of the original players begin a new run of the show in London’s West End.

Little said: ‘It’s an honour to be part of such an iconic show. I get to watch Australia’s best improvisers create magic and then take the piss if they stuff up. I can’t wait to get started.’

The seven-strong team of performers has not yet been named, although Foxtel executive Graham Burrells promised a mix of ‘comedy heavyweights and new talent’.

‘It’s Whose Line but not as you’ve seen it before,’ he said.

Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson created the format for Radio 4 in 1988, with Channel 4 starting a TV version in the same year, where it ran for a decade. It was then picked up and remade by ABC, where it ran for more than nine years; before the CW network revived it again in 2013.

 Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia will be filmed in  Melbourne  and air in the second half of 2016.

Meanwhile, the stage version of the show opens at the London Palladium tonight with improvisers Colin Mochrie, Josie Lawrence, Greg Proops and Brad Sherwood – along with host Clive Anderson. 

Published: 9 Jun 2016