Hurrah! Mock the Week is back!

IF there is one DVD you buy this summer, perhaps as an alternative to the ongoing football, it has to be the best of Mock The Week.

Regular readers of this blog will know no programme comes anywhere close in my estimations as Mock The Week. Like the bastard younger brother of Have I Got News For You, it's satirical comedy left off the leash, and with the likes of Russell Howard, Dara O'Briain and Frankie Boyle, it doesn't know when to stop when it comes to crossing the line.

The DVD is even better. I howled so much watching it while on holiday that the friendly old gent in the next apartment asked if I was ok the following morning.

And to make things better, the following press release dropped into my email inbox today. Read on and mark the date:

For twelve weeks from Thursday July 10th at 9pm, BBC Two welcomes back hit satirical quiz Mock The Week for its sixth series.

The show’s unique combination of stand up, off the cuff games, performance rounds and topical discussion reaches a large and loyal following of passionate comedy fans and it’s quickly becoming as much a part of the British summer as sporting failure, lousy weather and reality TV.

Just when Gordon Brown thought it was safe to spend the summer with Best of the Bee Gees and a book on economics, the Mock the Week team is back wielding their comedy cudgels with all the imagination and cheek of a Tory MEP’s expenses claim. There’s another England manager to assess, a London mayor to laugh at and an American presidential election to decide, all in twelve laughter filled weeks.

Mock The Week has a reputation as the sharpest show on the block and continues to provide a testing comedy coliseum where both the newest stand up talent and established performers can attempt to hold their own alongside an intimidating set of regulars. Hosted, as ever, by the brilliantly witty Dara O'Briain, each show will again match hard-hitting Frankie Boyle and multi-skilled Hugh Dennis against Russell Howard and Andy Parsons’ mix of the lovably surreal and the politically incisive.

Since it began in 2005, Mock The Week has already provided a platform for talents such as David Mitchell and Michael McIntyre, award-winning comedian and author Mark Watson, as well as the likes of Gina Yashere and John Oliver who have both gone on to great success in America. Seasoned performers have included Rory Bremner, Jo Brand, Clive Anderson, Jan Ravens and Al Murray. Mitchell, McIntyre and Watson will all return for the new series along with, among others, Lauren Laverne, Ed Byrne and Greg Proops.

The last series took YouTube by storm, regularly monopolizing the top slots of the section devoted to the BBC. It attracted as many as one hundred times the viewers of some other clips and, incredibly, during its run it occupied nine of the top ten BBC You Tube slots.

Mock The Week was created by Dan Patterson and Mark Leveson, the creative force behind the iconic improvisation show Whose Line Is It Anyway? which ran for ten years on British TV before successfully transferring to the United States.

Mock The Week is produced for BBC Two by independent production company Angst Productions.

Suzanne Gilfillan, Executive Editor BBC Entertainment comments: “I’m delighted that Dara and his guests are coming back to Thursday nights on BBC Two. Their unique take on the absurdity of the world is the perfect way to kick-off the weekend.”

Dan Patterson, Series Producer, says, “It’s great to be back for another series with a whole new set of targets and issues. I look forward to 2008 being the funniest summer since records began.”

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