UKTV Strikes Comedy Gold

Within the UKTV channel portfolio, Gold stands out with its dedication to celebrating the best in comedy. In particular, it has positioned itself as a home for beloved British comedies, with flagship shows that include Only Fools and Horses, Fawlty Towers, Blackadder and Mrs Brown’s Boys.

“Gold has a wonderful archive of the best British comedy—some would say it’s the best comedy in the world,” says Steve North, the channel’s general manager. “But we’re very keen to make sure that we don’t rest on our laurels and just use that archive without trying to add to it.”

North tells World Screen that he wants to make sure that Gold has a constant influx of new shows coming onto the channel. Lately, this has meant an increased number of original commissions. There are two main areas that Gold has been focusing on with its commissioning strategy: scripted series and retrospective shows.

UKTV has recently announced a number of original scripted comedies, including the sitcoms Bull, starring Robert Lindsay and Maureen Lipman, and Henry IX, written by comedy duo Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

North says that it’s “incredibly exciting for a channel that already has such incredible, wonderful and well-loved comedy shows to then be adding our own scripted shows on top of that. It’s also a challenge, because you’re putting yourself up against some of the best and most-loved comedy shows of all time to launch new comedy shows. It’s a blessing, but it can also be hard to launch brand-new comedy when it’s surrounded by the best shows ever made. Scripted comedy is really important to us; that’s what our audience loves and that’s what Gold is most known for. Being able to layer on top more scripted comedy developed purely for the Gold audience is really important.”

As for its retrospective shows, Gold is combing its archive of comedies and looking for new ways to explore the stories behind the series. “It might be focusing shows around individual programs, such as Fawlty Towers—looking at how the show came about, what happened while filming, what the story lines were, the casting, what happened on set—or it could be shows about individuals and their careers or their lives,” says North. “Those shows give us a way to talk to our core audience about the shows they love, but also give them a bit extra: new scenes or scenes that haven’t been aired in many years, or we may get people who worked on those shows to talk about what it was like. These retrospectives are meant to celebrate the glory of the most well-loved shows.”

North adds that the commissions are bringing in larger audiences for Gold. In fact, the highest rating show on the channel last year, which is also Gold’s highest rating show of all time, was an original: the live broadcast of the final performance of the Monty Python Live (mostly): One Down Five to Go stage show, which was taped at the O2 Arena in London.

“We’re always looking for new content and for fun, new ways to bring that archive to viewers,” says North of his programming focus looking ahead. “From a commissioning point of view, we’re looking at more original ways of doing retrospective shows, so finding new ways of coming in to talk about the archive and talk about the talent. That’s always of interest to us. Similarly, we’re trying to find more of that classic comedy. We’re always up for looking at new opportunities to bring those to Gold.”

Gold is “investing heavily” in creating its own original scripted comedies, which could go on to become the classics of tomorrow. “It’s all part of trying to reappraise the channel in viewers’ eyes,” says North. “This is a channel that’s as much for today as it is for content from yesterday. Gold is a place where you can go to watch new shows and new comedy and things you’ve never seen before, as well as a place where you can go to relax and enjoy the comedy that you grew up with or are a massive fan of.”