UKTV Orders Trust Morecambe & Wise, More Hypothetical

UKTV has commissioned the brand-new original series Trust Morecambe & Wise for its Gold channel and a second season of Hypothetical for Dave.

Presented by Sir Lenny Henry, Trust Morecambe & Wise will take a look at rarely seen footage featuring Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise at the peak of their careers. Each episode of the four-part series produced by Mercury Productions will be filmed in front of a live audience and include contributions from guest comedians and some of the duo’s co-stars. It is set to air later this year.

Joe McVey, UKTV commissioning editor, said: “If you’ve been at a crossroads in your life or simply trying to work out which sofa cushions to get, Trust Morecambe & Wise is what we’ve been waiting for. Every decision you make could be made easier by allowing Eric and Ernie to guide you. Also, it really is a great thrill to claim that I have commissioned Morecambe & Wise at some point in my career and that’s certainly the way I’m going to spin it on my CV.”

Tom Webber of Mercury Productions added: “It’s a thrill to bring Gold viewers the brilliance of Morecambe & Wise—and to have Lenny Henry fronting the series. Lenny’s not just a huge fan of Eric and Ernie, he knew them both and is the perfect host to lead this celebration of their genius.”

Stand-up stars Josh Widdicombe and James Acaster will return for a second season of the comedy show Hypothetical, which poses tricky questions to a panel of four comic guests that are then awarded points on a seemingly random basis. Hypothetical is produced by Hat Trick Productions.

Widdicombe said: “I am absolutely delighted Dave has turned the hypothetical Hypothetical second season into a reality. I know no one outside of the industry really reads these quotes so I would like to take this chance to say the success of the show is all down to the team’s hard work and late nights. Now that’s done I look forward to James and I publicly taking all the credit for the show when it comes out.”

Acaster added: “The second series of Hypothetical is going to be bigger, braver and more hypotheticaler than before! Widdicombe called me up and told me to suit up in my finest corduroys because it’s time to ask the questions most folks are too scared to ask to the people most folks are too scared to gaze upon. I’ve been wearing the big hat and the small hat on alternate days in preparation. I’ve got a pocketful of points and I’m keen to dish them out! They’re weighing me down! I’m lugging these points around everywhere with me and I need to lighten the load! I’ll give them to whoever I can! As long as they give me a satisfying answer to a hypothetical question.”

McVey said: “Great news for people who want life hacks from comedians, Hypothetical is back. This is of no use if you need parenting tips or advice on how to get your tax return done in time, however, it’s more of a ‘how to live for a year without shoes’ kind of thing. On second thought, this is of no real-world use to any of us. Why have we done this? Because it’s funny. That’s why we did this and I’m happy we did.”

Luke Hales, Dave channel director, commented: “We are so pleased to be bringing Hypothetical back for another hilarious series, not only because it was a massive success for us but on a personal level, as a viewer, it is one of my favorite things on TV. The comedians genuinely have zero prep time and having to improvise on the spot makes for some of the funniest moments I have seen on telly in years. On Dave, we are committed to working with the best comic talent and making the funniest and most original comedy on British TV and this really does deliver on all of those fronts.”

Stu Mather of Hat Trick Productions said: “We’re absolutely thrilled that Hypothetical is back for another series on Dave. It’s been a pleasure developing the show with Joe and the team at UKTV and in exchange for their support, we promise to put more of the country’s best comedians into increasingly stupid hypothetical situations. We can’t wait to get started.”