E4 announces sketch show

Dog Face comes hot on the heels of Blunder, another character comedy show due to launch on the Channel 4 next Friday.

The new E4 programme features relatively unknown comedy talent, including stand-up Matt King, 2004 Perrier best newcomer nominee Jo Neary (pictured), Kevin Bishop (who played Dudley Moore in last year's stage play Pete & Dud: Come Again), Catherine Shepherd from BBC Two's Hyperdrive and Renton Skinner of the sketch group Dutch Elm Conservertoire

The show - which previously had the working title Party Piece - is said to deal with 'despair, frustration, bitterness and anger'.

E4 has also comfirmed a its first home-grown comedy drama series, Skins, which will be written by one of the youngest teams of writers and contributors in TV, including Never Mind The Buzzcocks host Simon Amstell, 26, and award-winning stand-up Josie Long, 24.

The nine-parter, also due to air next year, follows the lives and loves of a group of 17-year-olds, and was created by Bryan Elsley, the man behind The Young Person's Guide to Becoming a Rock Star. The series stars Nicholas Hoult, who co-starred in About A Boy opposite Hugh Grant.

The station also officially confirmed a full series of prank phone call series Fonejacker, as Chortle reported in last month. The show, featuring animations and film tricks to illustrate the calls, started out as a Channel 4 Comedy Lab pilot and will now be a series of six half-hour shows.

Blunder - which was partly shot in front of a live studio audience - stars David Mitchell, Simon Farnaby, Rhys Thomas, Nina Conti, Tom Meeten and Tony Way

Published: 18 Nov 2006