Bafta-winning BBC comedy Amandaland, starring Lucy Punch and Dame Joanna Lumley, has been renewed for a six-part third series – alongside nine other shows.
Black Ops is among the comedy shows announced by the BBC today(Image: CREDIT LINE:BBC/James Stack)
BAFTA award-winning comedy Amandaland has been commissioned for a third run, the BBC has confirmed – alongside nine other series.
The hit show, starring Lucy Punch, Dame Joanna Lumley and Philippa Dunne, scooped the Bafta for best scripted comedy at Sunday’s prestigious ceremony, and is set to return for a brand new six-part run.
BBC Comedy Director Jon Petrie broke the news at the BBC Comedy Festival in Liverpool on Wednesday, also revealing that Black Ops will be back for a third series.
The comedy features Gbemisola Ikumelo and Saturday Night Live UK‘s Hammed Animashaun as two undercover police officers, and has already racked up a host of accolades, including a Bafta for Ikumelo for best female comedy performance.
Alongside the returning favourites, Petrie unveiled a raft of new programmes, including Hopley Hall, which will follow the staff and volunteers at a country house in Northern Ireland, starring Derry Girls‘ Jamie-Lee O’Donnell.
Meanwhile, Opening Up is set and filmed in and around Manchester, with Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Amy Gledhill taking the lead role.
A brand new documentary, Twenty Years Of Not Going Out, will mark two decades of the beloved sitcom created by and starring Lee Mack.
Further shows to receive new series commissions include Am I Being Unreasonable?, written by and starring Daisy May Cooper and Selin Hizli.
The duo said they were “excited (and slightly concerned) to return to the mad world of Am I Being Unreasonable?”. “The first two series have been an absolute joy to make and we couldn’t be more grateful to be back for a third time with our incredible cast and crew,” they added.
“There’s a lot to say in this series – some of which we probably shouldn’t – but we’re hoping to end on a high. Even if some of our characters might not.”
Things You Should Have Done, Such Brave Girls, Mammoth and Two Doors Down are also set to return for brand new series.
Amandaland has emerged as one of the BBC’s most popular comedy programmes in recent years, with Punch starring as glamorous divorcee Amanda.
Seb Barwell, BBC Comedy commissioning editor, said: “Amanda and friends continue to capture the hearts of the nation, so we’re delighted to announce a third series and to keep up our ‘co-lab’ with this amazing team.”
During a speech at the Comedy Festival, Petrie celebrated the remarkable comedy and acting talent to have emerged from Liverpool, from Ken Dodd to John Bishop, to the “original Liver Bird and all-round comedy legend Alison Steadman”.
Describing comedy as “part of our survival mechanism,” he noted the medium is “what people turn to again and again. It is what we quote, what we rewatch, what brings us together”.
Referencing incoming BBC director-general Matt Brittin, Petrie quipped that he plans to camp outside his office, “to meet him and make sure he understands just how vital it is that the BBC keeps backing comedy, so that this brilliant genre can not only survive, but thrive.”
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