...even though BBC wanted it

Michell & Webb have ditched their own sitcom – even though the BBC wanted it.

The duo recorded a pilot of the show, called Playing Shop, which the corporation liked enough to order a full series.

However, the two comics weren’t happy with it and turned down the commission – promising to polish the script for another pilot.

The premise revolves around two friends trying to start a business after being made redundant, but Webb said: ‘It was too close to Peep Show. We wanted to rejig it.’

In the interview with the Daily Telegraph, Mitchell added: ‘I think we made the characters too scuzzy and low-rent. It was our natural inclination to write these absolute losers’

Should the BBC like the rejigged version, Playing Shop should hit screens at the end of 2010.

‘Comedy is very heavily scrutinised in the press but there’s a good reason for that: people really give a damn about it,’ Mitchell said. ‘When a sketch show or sitcom is deemed not to be very good people take that personally. That’s the downside. The upside is that we live in a country that really cares about comedy and when it works, my God they love it.’

Published: 10 Jun 2009