Pilot for Ben Phillips

Comedy Central is to pilot a prank show from Facebook star Ben Phillips.

It will feature Phillips, 24, and his friends playing a trick on his long suffering friend Elliot, which backfires 'with hilarious consequences'.

The half-hour pilot has the working title Ben Phillips Blows Up, and will air in the late spring.

Comedy Central's deal with the prankster also includes online rights to his back catalogue, which it will put on its website.

Cardiff-based Phillips, – who has more than 8.5million Facebook likes – said: 'I can't wait to show our amazing fans a different side to us all and, of course, put poor Elliot through even more hell - Sorry Bro!"

'Sorry bro' is his catchphrase, and also the title of a book he released last year.

Louise Holmes, vice president of programming for Comedy Central UK added: 'Ben is an ingenious prankster and we were keen to bring his world and all its well-loved characters like poor Elliot and Farmer Chris to the TV screen He's a huge star with a mass army of loyal followers – we are very excited to be working with him.'

The pilot is being produced for Channel X – who have previously made all Reeves and Mortimer's work – by George Sawyer, and developed by Comedy Central's Matt Tiller.

Here is one of Williams's pranks, which has received almost 50million views on Facebook:

Published: 17 Jan 2017