...and actor-playwright Tatenda Shamiso

Channel 4 has announced three new comedy shorts, from 2024 Edinburgh Comedy Award winners Rob Copland and Joe Kent-Walters, plus actor-playwright Tatenda Shamiso.

All are part of the broadcaster’s ‘Playground’ strand for new talent to experiment with TV formats on YouTube.

The first will be Copland’s  sketch show Tell Me When You're Bored, which also counts Kent-Walters among its the cast.

The five-minute show also features a number of familiar comedy circuit names:  Phil Ellis, Molly McGuinness, Pravanya Pillay, Ray Badran, Dom Hatton-Woods, Ben Silver, Theo Capaloff, Rose Gray and Eryn Tett.

Copland won last year’s Victoria Wood Award at the Fringe, and wrote on Instagram: ‘That degree I got in film studies finally paid off… Thank you everyone who helped make this happen and helped make it. An amazing team of people and I am so grateful to all of them. I think you'll enjoy it.’

It will be directed by Sam O’Leary – whose credits include Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared and Inside No 9 – and made by production company Calling The Shots.

Kent-Walters – who has just been performing his second Edinburgh show in the guise of his grotesque  working men’s club compere – will be making a multi-character sketch show for his Playground.

The show has not yet got a title, but it will be produced byHave I Got News For You makers  Hat Trick Productions.

Finally, Shamiso, who has just directed the acclaimed play Eat The Rich (but maybe not me mates x) in Edinburgh, has written and Jim Jamz School 4 Dadz, which he will also perform in.  

News of the Playgrounds was first reported by the British Comedy Guide. 

Published: 26 Aug 2025