Made by Wrong Mans team

BBC Two has ordered a whodunnit comedy set at a stag do in Scotland.

Characters are mysteriously killed over the three-part series, which has been written by George Kay, who previously penned episodes of The Hour, and Jim Field Smith, who directed and produced The Wrong Mans.

The show will be a co-production between the BBC's in-house comedy department and Field-Smith's company Idiotlamp Productions.

Stag was ordered by BBC Two controller Kim Shillinglaw, although other details are scant.

She also confirmed that BBC Two has commissioned a script by Danny Baker based on his memoir of growing up in the 1970s, Going To Sea In A Sieve, as Chortle reported in March.

She said: ‘It made me laugh out loud when I read it. His dad was a unionised docker. It's about him wrestling to hold his family together, longing to be a ducker and diver but not wanting to let go of the past’

In an interview with The Observer yesterday, Shillinglaw added that comedy ‘needs to be taken as seriously as classical music at the BBC’.

She said: ‘When you make people laugh, you create a bit of love. It's a special thing. But it goes beyond that. It holds up a mirror, tells you something about the absurdity of British life. You see that with The Office, The Thick of It and, in a slightly more parochial way, with W1A.’

And she said the channel will reduce its reliance of panel shows int eh 10pm slot, saying: ‘We have great performers there in a fine generation of panel shows, [but] they're terrific workhorses that are 10, 15, years old, so we'll be looking to vary that mix. Ten o'clock is a place where BBC2 should show its knickers a bit.’

Published: 4 Aug 2014