A tight 5: March 20

RHYS DARBY’s new sitcom Short Poppies is to launch on Netflix on April 3, the on-demand service has announced. The show follows a journalist as he meets the characters in a small New Zealand town, all played by Darby. Stephen Merchant also has a cameo, as a local insurance agent, as the below teaser shows. The sitcom will be available in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom all at the same time.

STILL with Netflix, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are to star in a new 13-part sitcom for the service next year. In Grace and Frankie, the pair – who co-starred in Nine To Five in 1980 – play long-time enemies who come together when their husbands desert them.

LLOYD LANGFORD, Des Clarke, and Owen O’Neill are to record a radio stand-up show that takes place across their three nations. How The Other Half Laugh will be broadcast on the BBC in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and recorded at Daly’s Comedy Club in Omagh on March 29; the Glasgow Stand on April 4 and the Cardiff Glee on April 16.

RHOD GILBERT has been commissioned to make a fifth series of his Work Experience programme for the BBC, with filming due to start in May. Producers at Zipline Creative have not revealed what jobs the comic will undertake, but said: ‘It's fair to say Rhod's physical and mental limits will be thoroughly tested.’

THE BBC’s comedy about itself, W1A, got off to a strong start in the ratings last night, attracting 1.6million viewers to BBC Two at 10pm, more than half a million up on the average for the slot. The show benefited from a strong lead-in of 3million viewers for the finale of Line Of Duty which immediately preceded it.

Published: 20 Mar 2014