BBC Two unveils new comedy season

Heading the list is Beautiful People, Meera Syal’s first comedy role since The Kumars at No 42.

The show is based on the memoirs of Simon Doonan, now creative director of New York department store Barneys, about his childhood dreams of escaping suburban Reading.

Adapted by Gimme Gimme Gimme writer Jonathan Harvey, the series also stars Olivia Colman from Peep Show, Aidan McArdle who played Dudley Moore in the TV movie Not Only But Always and Layton Williams, who played Billy Elliot in the West End.

Another new comedy series is the mockumentary The Cup, about a Bolton junior football club and their quest to win the North and Midlands Under 11s Cup.

It is based on Canadian series The Tournament, which was set in the world of junior ice hockey, and written by Jack Docherty and Moray Hunter, who are best known for sketch show Absolutely

The ensemble cast includes Steve Edge from Phoenix Nights, Jennifer Hennessy from Drop Dead Gorgeous and Tanya Franks from Pulling, among others.

Here is a trailer:

Also confirmed at the season launch was a third series of Jack Dee’s sitcom Lead Balloon.

Away from comedy, Griff Rhys Jones is to front a personal documentary on anger.

He said: ‘Losing it can, of course, be funny. It's a loss of control and it's particularly funny when it happens to other people. But anger can also be embarrassing and shameful. People in positions of responsibility are not supposed to lose their rag.

‘About a year ago, I made a film for the BBC about a sailing race and during the course of it I got into a filthy temper. I started shouting at the blameless people who were racing with me. I flew into a rage about something which was completely beyond my control. It was actually nothing new for me. I do get cross.

‘Im an actor, I'm a writer, I run a production company. I'm successful with a lot of work – perhaps a bit too much – which I insist on doing myself. And I have to admit, when it all builds up there are times when it gets too much.’

‘This is a film about being angry; I'm going to talk to other people about their propensity to fly into a rage, to throw a wobbler, to lose it.’

Published: 10 Jul 2008