BBC iPlayer announces four new comedy shorts

This year’s Comedy Shorts are titled: Brain In Gear, Lazy Susan, Mandy and Sorry.

The online platform will premiere the shorts which will later be broadcast on BBC Two. 

“These shorts are a fast track way to back generation defining comedy talents to experiment with story and form. They also offer the comedy audience a novel way to watch comedy in more readily digestible ways as their attention is being pulled in so many more ways than ever before.” – Shane Allen, Controller Comedy Commissioning BBC

Mandy, Lazy Susan and Sorry will be available on BBC iPlayer from Thursday 25 July with Brain In Gear being uploaded on Saturday 3 August. BBC Two air dates have not yet been set.

Written by and starring Gbemisola Ikumelo, Brain In Gear is described as a comedy about a flat-share where the nightmare tenants are the voices in your head. Central to proceedings is Remi, a perfectly normal, if somewhat anxious single woman in her *cough* late 20s whose inner selves keep giving her contradicting advice whilst also appearing uninvited in her home. 

“I talk to myself a lot. As in full blown, animated chats about everything and nothing, and I’ve often wondered what I would look like if someone placed a hidden camera in my home and caught me mid-flow.” – Ikumelo

Fresh from a sell-out, critically acclaimed run at the Edinburgh Fringe and a transfer to London’s Leicester Square Theatre and Melbourne Comedy Festival, comedy duo Lazy Susan – Freya Parker and Celeste Dring – bring their hilarious and twisted world view to the BBC.

The Lazy Susan comedy short will feature new creations along side some of their best-loved characters from their stage shows such as Megan and Michaela who just ‘don’t want any drama tonight’ and Thomas and Sandrine the ‘whimsical French woman, written by a man who’s never met a woman’.

“This is a really exciting opportunity for us. We’re so glad that Amy Annette and Katie Churchill said yes when we proposed making it with them (on bended knee – as is customary in TV pitching).” – Lazy Susan (Freya and Celeste)

Making her Directorial debut, Diane Morgan also wrote and stars in Mandy, a comedy film about a woman who really wants a sofa. Have you ever seen a sofa you like in a shop window and really wanted it to the extent of the craving literally taking over your life? 

Mandy stars Diane Morgan, Gbemisola Ikumelo, Al Green,  Mark Silcox, Rick Edwards and the actual Carol Decker from T’Pau. 

“As well as writing and performing in this, I also did location scouting, prop-buying, costume and my own hair and make-up. But if it’s no good I can always blame the director. Oh hang on, that was me as well.” – Diane Morgan

Sorry is about an actress, Dolly Adesina, on the verge of super-stardom and the self-acclaimed ‘black Jennifer Lawrence’. Whilst making her way to the London premiere of her first Hollywood film, she finds out she’s trending on Twitter, but for all the wrong reasons – putting her career in jeopardy. Sorry explores the ideas of intent, regret and redemption, and asks the question: who gets a second chance? It is written by and stars Lolly Adefope.

“So excited to be making a comedy short for BBC iPlayer, and especially excited by the opportunity to really get out of my zone by playing an actress who gets into trouble for something she tweeted!” – Lolly Adefope

Brain in Gear and Mandy are both BBC Studios productions for BBC iPlayer, whilst Lazy Susan and Sorry are Tiger Aspect productions for the service.