Television and radio firm wins £4.5m orders

THE Comedy Unit, a Scottish TV and radio production company, has secured £4.5m worth of orders that will be going into production later this year.

These include Hogmanay specials of comedy shows Chewin’ the Fat and Only an Excuse, which are being made for BBC Scotland.

The company, run by former senior BBC employees April Chamberlain and Colin Gilbert, is one of Scotland’s most successful independent producers.

It will begin production later this year on the second series of The Karen Dunbar Show, which begins filming in October. Offside, a football entertainment show starring Tam Cowan, will return to TV in October for its third run. A new series of sitcom Still Game goes into pre-production in November.

The Comedy Unit is currently in post-production of a teenage comedy drama, Yo!Diary, which will be aired in November on the BBC.

Radio shows are also in the pipeline, including Ronan the Amphibian. The Ordeal of Alfred M Hale, a comedy based on the First World War memoirs of the eponymous anti-hero, will be aired by Radio 4 in October.

The firm will also have its productions broadcast on Radio Scotland in the autumn. These include music programme Cowan’s Crooners, which begins in September, the sixth series of comedy show Watson’s Wind-Up, which begins in October, and the second series of political satire Coming Home.