Coogan spoof heads BBC2's new comedy line-up

BBC2 has announced a new line-up for its Monday night comedy strand.

New shows from Steve Coogan, Goodness Gracious Me's Sanjeev Baskar and Meera Syal, and Ballykissangel star Stephen Tonkinson (pictured) make up the new schedules from November 12.

Coogan's show is a spoof horror series, parodying the Hammer films of the Seventies. Dr Terrible's House Of Horrible was co-written with Henry Normal, who created Mrs Merton and The Royle Family with Caroline Aherne.

Episode titles include: Lesbian Vampire Lovers Of Lust, And Now The Fearing and The Curse Of The Blood Of The Lizard Of Doom.

The show will be followed by At Home With The Kumars, a spoof chat show set in a studio supposedly attached to a normal Asian household.

Guests, which include Richard E Grant and Michael Parkinson in the first show, are subjected to questioning from all the family members.

The final show in the line-up, Mr Charity, stars Tonkinson as an unscrupulous fundraiser more concerned with his own image than helping people.

Tonkinson says; "He's the last person you need running a charity shop, like Basil Fawlty was the last person you needed running a hotel."

Published: 25 Oct 2001