Second series for American TV
Bobby Mair is to make a second series of horror-themed game show Killer Camp in the US.
In the format, participants are dropped into a 1980s-inspired lakeside summer camp, ‘Camp Pleasant’. However there is a murderer among them and the contestants must try to earn cash and figure out who the killer is, while avoiding being despatched in a comically extreme way.
The British-based Canadian comedian originally fronted the murder-mystery reality show for ITV2 in 2019.
It was stripped across five nights in the lead-up to Halloween, with Mair playing the camp counsellor as well as host. It was then aired by The CW network in the US last summer.
Jeremy Wells and Paul Williams to return
The New Zealand remake of Taskmaster has been renewed for a second series.
Taskmaster NZ features comic Jeremy Wells setting the challenges and Paul Williams as his sidekick.
The first series ran from October and December and attracted audiences of around 130,000, making it one of the country’s top ten programmes.
Broadcaster TVNZ will also air series 11 of the UK original with Greg Davies and creator series creator Alex Horne later this year, after already screening seasons 1 to 7, and ten.
Meanwhile, BBC Studios Australia has also picked up Taskmaster series ten plus the one-off special Taskmaster’s New Year Treat to air on UKTV and SBS Viceland down under.
Network buys UK originals - and rights to a remake
Would I Lie To You? is getting a US airing – as well as a remake for American audiences.
The youth-orientated CW network has brought the rights to broadcast two seasons of the UK original, hosted by Rob Brydon.
It will then air its own version, with a line-up yet to be announced.
The remake will be produced by US company Truly Original, a sister outfit to British programme-makers Zeppotron, with creator Peter Holmes among the executive producers.
Would I Lie To You? has run on the BBC for 14 years, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains. Angus Deayton hosted the first two series, before Brydon took over.
Review of his new black and white BBC Two shorts
There’s something about Harry Hill that suggests he’d probably be making these silly black and white short films whether he’d been commissioned by the BBC or not.
His Lonely Island sketches, the first of which aired last night, have the feel of a man-child just mucking about for his own entertainment. Hill leans into the home-made ethos with low-grade costumes and ‘special’ effects he makes no attempt to conceal. The amateur execution is true to the word’s original roots, something done for pure love.
Gone are Hill’s trademark oversized collars as he dons a caveman’s bearskin to do battle with a skeleton; a fake nose, drawn-on eyebrows and an extravagant hat to become Napoleon atop a donkey Marengo; and a full monkey suit to become a primate in search of some delicious fruit… if only that pesky bird doesn’t get it first.
Trevor Peacock was 89
Vicar Of Dibley actor Trevor Peacock has died at the age of 89.
The actor, who played Jim Trott in the BBC sticom, died of a dementia-related illness, his family said.
He was diagnosed with dementia in 2009 and it was reported in 2017 that he had retired from acting.
His Dibley character, known for repeatedly saying no . even before answering yes , was just one in a line of screen and stage credits, including the title role in the BBC adaptation of Shakespeare s Titus Andronicus, Feste, the Gravedigger in Franco Zeffirelli s 1990 film version of Hamlet, and roles in Last of The Summer Wine, Jonathan Creek, The Thin Blue Line and My Family.