The best comedy on demand

The best comedy on demand...

Flat TV

This inventive comedy based on Tom Rosenthal and Naz Osmanoglu's real lives as flatmates, has landed on BBC Three.

The show tells their farcical day-to-day stories through other TV shows, including news bulletins and reality shows. For example, Naz presenting his Dragon's Den invention - the Swiss Army hat, a cap with cutlery fastened to it.

All four episodes – which run for 20 minutes now BBC Three isn't constrained by usual broadcast timeslots – have been made available on iPlayer, box-set style, this week.

Mark Smith versus The People

Tim Vine's already had a chat show interviewing members of the public, now comedian Mark Smith is offering his take on the same idea, along with co-host Lolly Adefope and Rhys James, who plays a hapless runner.

Mark Smith Versus The People takes real people off the streets of Ealing, West London, sits them down on Smith's sofa and gives them the questions they'd have to answer on a regular chat show. These interviews are mixed with pre-filmed segments such as How Far Can You Get On £50? and What Does It Take For A Privileged White Man To Get In Trouble With The Authorities?.

End Times Girls Club

Combining two things sure to be hits online: Girls' lifestyle tips and post-apocalyptic planning – this comedy web series has been attracting headlines because of one its co-stars, Rose Kennedy Schlossberg, just happens to be the granddaughter of John and Jackie Kennedy, with whom she bears a strong family resemblance.

'It came up as a response to seeing the way that New York responded to Hurricane Sandy, and how people were grossly underprepared — specifically, girls in damsel in distress mode,' she has said. 'I thought it would be interesting to create this world where girls have to be survivalists without compromising their cute factor.' She co-hosts with Mara Nelson-Greenberg.

The Unexplainers

Billed as Wales's answer to the X Files, The Unexplainers is actually more similar to comedians Ray Peacock and Barry Dodds' podcast The Parapod – as it features Goldie Lookin Chain rap star John Rutledge, a believer, and comedian Mike Bubbins, a sceptic, on the hunt for myths and mysteries.

The first series, produced by the team behind Rhod Gilbert's Work Experience, reached the top 10 of the global iTunes podcast charts. Now the pair have returned for a second run, investigating Welsh bigfoot, psychic powers, the Dyfed Triangle and, in the first episode now on iPlayer, the beast of Lake Bala.

Bubbins said his investigations challenged 'my lifelong faith in reason, my cool-headed commitment to rationality, and my poorly thought through decision to spend 14 days in a car, two nights in a tent, and an evening in a cave with John Rutledge.'

Published: 26 Mar 2016