Doing away with comedians altogether

BBC Three is piloting a new ‘reality’ sketch show – doing away with comedians all together.

Boom Town will feature ‘real-life characters’ cast from all over the country with their own ‘catchphrases, eccentricities and larger than life personalities’, none of which will be scripted.

It will be set in one fictional town, with all the geographically diverse characters appearing to live there – thanks to cunning establishing shots and fake road signs.

The half-hour pilot follows the success of such ‘scripted reality’ shows as The Only Way Is Essex and Jersey Shore.

The BBC’s executive entertainment editor, Karl Warner, said: ‘Boom Town will be the first sketch show to make stars out of real people.

‘Some of the characters we've already met are laugh-out-loud funny and would sit well in any scripted comedy.

‘BBC Three is always keen to try trying new things and this feels like an original proposition which we're looking forward to making with [production company] Knickerbockerglory.’

Executive producer Jonathan Stadlen added: ‘Using real people to create a documentary sketch show is a unique challenge from a genre point of view, but we are all really excited about working on such a radical departure in terms of form.

‘Boom Town sets out to play on the conventions of the comedy sketch show - and I really hope we can pull it off… to create a very different, and hopefully very funny, new genre of TV.’

Published: 13 Apr 2012