Coming from a different town each week

Tom Allen is working on a new Channel 4 series which will come from a different British location each week.

An hour-long pilot of the  entertainment show, provisionally titled Tom Allen Goes To Town, has been commissioned.

The broadcaster says that if the series is picked up the comic will be ‘celebrating a different town in the UK each week as he hosts an as-live comedy entertainment show from an iconic local venue. In front of an audience made up of local characters he’s met over the week, it’s set to be a heart-warming and funny love letter to regional Britain, celebrating real people in beautiful, unsung places.’

Mark Steel has similarly been travelling the country with his  Radio 4 series Mark Steel’s In Town since 2009. The comic – who shares an agent with Allen in Off The Kerb – has visited 43 locations, writing bespoke stand-up based on the people he meets.

Today’s news follows last week’s announcement that Allen is taking over from Rhod Gilbert on the BBC Two spin-off show You’re Fired.

Tom Allen Goes To Town is being made by Rumpus Media – the production company behind Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, which has just been re-commissioned.

Earlier this year John Bishop also piloted a show that would tour the UK, although it is not known if Allen has taken over the reins, or if this is a separate project. Bishop’s trial took place in Manchester, with the comic surprising members of the studio audience and people on the streets as well as highlighting ‘local heroes’.

Published: 15 Aug 2019