And BBC Three, too

The IT Crowd creator admits he had a role in creating shows that bring back the same characters week after week – but said it was time to call an end to them.

In an interview with the Independent, he said: ‘I directed the pilot of Little Britain to help Matt Lucas and David Walliams get a foot in the door. When it started I thought it was so inventive and changed the game but people saw its success as an excuse for repetition: getting a funny character and grinding it into the ground.

‘People should definitely stop doing sketch shows that rely on repetition. Catherine Tate and everyone else should just stop doing it. Sketch shows should be about variety, but people feel that audiences, if they like something, need to be given more of that thing. That is untrue.

‘Audiences do not know what they like. They only know when they see it and our job, as comedy writers, is to create new things and that involves taking risks and I think, at the moment, there is a lack of risk in British comedy.’

And of BBC Three he said: ‘ I do not think you have to chase a young audience by talking down to them and that's what BBC Three seems to do. It is like watching your granddad break dancing. It is just embarrassing. I think what you do is talk up to them, and you let people catch up.’

• IT Crowd star Chris O'Dowd last week revealed that a fourth series of the sitcom could be on the cards, saying: 'I think we'll do a Christmas special in the summer and then shoot a new series at the end of the year, start of next year, if we're all free.'

>> The interview in full.

Published: 13 Apr 2009