A tight 5: July 3, 2013

THE BBC is to make another batch of its Comedy Feed pilots, to go out in September this year. The commission comes in the week that a new batch of eight shows were released online as part of the initiative. Last year, the pilots attracted more than a million views on BBC iPlayer in the first 10 days they were available.

CHRIS ADDISON is to be made an honorary doctor of Birmingham University on Friday. The comic, who graduated from the university with a degree in English literature in 1994, is among 17 recipients of honorary degrees, alongside Holocaust survivor Kitty Hart-Moxon, Tony Blair’s former gatekeeper Anji Hunter, and the founder of cuddly toy-craze Moshi Monsters, Michael Acton Smith.

ABOVE is the first image from Sky 1’s new family comedy series Yonderland, showing Simon Farnaby as evil overlord Negatus alongside his demon cronies. The eight-part series has been created by the team behind Horrible Histories and mixes familiar actors with puppets. Yonderland is about a mum who, free from her children for the first time, finds herself in a world inhabited by eccentric characters who believe her to be their saviour, and is due out later this year.

TRACY MORGAN has become a father for the fourth time. The 30 Rock star’s fiancée Megan Wollover, 26, gave birth to a baby girl, Maven Sonae Morgan, yesterday. It is the couple’s first child together, but Morgan, 44, has three sons from a previous marriage.

BBC TWO has confirmed the commission of The Wipers Times, the First World War film starring Michael Palin as an Army officer who sets up a satirical magazine. As Chortle first reported in March, the film was written by Private Eye editor Ian Hislop and his frequent collaborator Nick Newman, and based on the real-life exploits of Captain Fred Roberts.

Published: 3 Jul 2013