Toast pops up again next month

BBC confirms air date for Matt Berry's Toast Of Tinseltown

Stephen Toast will be returning to TV on January 4, the BBC has confirmed.

Six episodes of Toast Of Tinseltown will follow Matt Berry’s character trying to make it in Los Angeles.

The new series comes more than six years after Toast Of London last aired on Channel 4.

Harry Peacock also reprises his role as Ray Purchase, and the first picture from the new series – above – shows Berry's What We Do In The Shadows co-star Kayvan Novak also has a guest role, as a character called Des Wigwam.

The description of the first episode reads: ‘Toast is becoming increasingly angry and everyone is noticing - even Ray Purchase. There’s no chance of landing the big movie audition in this state.

‘After a successful visit to an anger management centre, Toast is a new man and sets about apologising to all the people he’s been rude to. However, when he reveals the extent of his wrongdoing to Purchase, the pair come face to face at the Colonial Club.’

Co-creator Arthur Mathews originally revealed the new series at the Chortle Comedy Book Festival last year.

He said: ‘It was a thrill to be writing Toast again after a long gap. Hollywood is a brave new world for Toast. There will be triumphs and tribulations (but mostly tribulations - and indeed humiliations).’

Berry previously said: ‘I couldn't be more thrilled to not only be working with Arthur and the rest of the Toast family again, but to also be taking the show to the BBC, which I know Toast himself would very much approve.’

Three series of Toast of London originally aired between 2013 and 2015, with Berry scooping a Bafta for Best Male Comedy Performance for his role.

Shane Allen, the BBC’s former controller of comedy commissioning, said: ‘This sitcom is one of the stand-out comedy gems of the last decade. His name belongs in the pantheon of celebrated British comedy character buffoons - Partridge, Brent and Toast.’

Toast Of Tinseltown starts on BBC Two at 10pm on January 4.

UPDATE: Other guest stars over the six-part series will include Portlandia’s Fred Armisen as Russ Nightlife; Susan Wokoma as Nina Armenian, Rashida Jones as Billie. Meanwhile Robert Bathurst is back as Toast's landlord Ed Howzer-Black and Tim Downie returns as sound engineer Danny Bear.

Berry has released this teaser trailer for the show on Twitter.