...as stand-ups star in another C4 Blap

Channel 4 has released two more Comedy Blaps, including the first commission for Peep Show creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong's new production company.

Between them, the new shorts feature familiar comedy faces such as Jamie Demetriou, Sofie Hagen, Mae Martin, Pierre Novellie and Jamali Maddix.

Bain and Armstrong are executive producers and script editors on Avatards, a part live action, part animated comedy made by their company, Curse These Metal Hands.

The three shorts revolve around two gamers, Meg and Daniel, who are obsessed with the virtual world of Lava Mountain, where they are waiting for some 'shadow-cloth gloves' to materialise.

Alexa Davies, who played Aretha in Raised By Wolves, and Ethan Lawrence – Joe in Bad Education – play the leads with Demetriou as Jase, a new guy in Meg's office and potential love interest... although their budding romance hits problems when he steps into the virtual world.

Avatards was written by Fresh Meat scribe Jon Brown, co-stars David Mumeni, and was directed by Jamie Jay Johnson, who also worked on Cold Feet and Fresh Meat.

Production company Curse These Metal Hands takes its moniker from one of the many suggested names for Jeremy and Super Hans's ill-fated band in Peep Show.

Also released today is Outsiders, pictured, a three-episode sitcom about a group of twentysomething foreigners living in a cramped London flat who discover a gun on their doorstep.

Written by Andrew Ellard and the cast, it stars Dane Sofie Hagen, Canadian Mae Martin, South African Pierre Novellie, Irish comic Yasmine Akram and Londoner Jamali Maddix.

It is directed by Dominic Brigstocke, whose credits include I'm Alan Partridge, Harry Enfield and Chums and Tracy Ullman's Show, and produced by Anne Henry for Citrus Television.

Ellard is a prolific script editor, with his work including Miranda, Count Arthur Strong, Red Dwarf, Cardinal Burns, House of Fools and Chewing Gum. But Outsiders is his first sitcom commission as principal writer.

Blaps are a testing ground for Channel 4 comedy. Previous shorts that have been developed to series on E4 include the Bafta-winning Chewing Gum, which returns for a second series in the autumn, Roisin Conaty's Game Face, which airs in early 2017, and hidden camera prank show Bad Robots.

Nerys Evans, deputy head of Channel 4 comedy said: 'Blaps are always great fun – joyous nuggets of the weird and the wonderful. We've had fantastic success taking many on to a full series commission.

'We welcome all kinds of stories from all kinds of voices and experience levels. Fundamentally Blaps are a brilliant way for us to work with new writers and directors, who have the freedom to try something new.'

Watch the new shorts here.

– By Jay Richardson

• Writer Andrew Ellard on creating his new comedy

Published: 26 Jul 2016