A tight 5: June 18, 2013

THE 8 Out Of 10 Cats team are to take on Countdown again. Host Jimmy Carr and team captains Sean Lock and Jon Richardson will be recording two special editions of the words and numbers quiz in Manchester next month. The comedians have already taken over the format four times, beginning in January last year as part of a Channel 4 mashup night.

SMACK THE PONY star Doon Mackichan and Inbetweeners actor Blake Harrison have joined the cast of the BBC One sitcom pilot Homeboys. Harrison and Marc Pickering, whose credits include Sleepy Hollow, play two twentysomething brothers still living with their parents, while Mackichan plays the nightmare boss at the damp-proofing company where Harrison’s character David works. As Chortle reported earlier this week, the show will also feature Fonejacker’s Kayvan Novak, playing David’s workplace rival. Daniel Ryan and Lesley Sharp will play the brothers’ parents. See our Free Tickets page to be in the studio audience.

FRAISER actor Kelsey Grammer is to star in a new legal sitcom. He will appear alongside Martin Lawrence as lawyers who form an unlikely partnership in a new series for America’s FX channel. Producers have struck a so-called 10/90 deal with the broadcaster, which means that if the initial 10 episodes of the untitled sitcom hit ratings targets, an additional 90 episodes will automatically be commissioned.

STAND-UP Arnab Chanda is to join the BBC Radio Comedy team next month as a production trainee, spending 12 months working with producers to find out how shows are put together. He has previously appeared in the 2011 film Black Pond, Julia Davis's Hunderby and Dan Clark's BBC Three series How Not to Live Your Life.

NOMINATIONS have opened to join the Edinburgh Fringe’s board of directors and Participants' Council. You must be a member of the Fringe Society that administers the festival to stand. Applications close on July 19 and more details are available here.

Published: 20 Jun 2013