Brummie mirth-monger Frank Skinner is to star as a taxi-driver in a new ITV sitcom.  ITV has defied the laws of the Funny.co.uk ITV "Programme Commissioning Grid" (available here) and has made a programme that is not about houses, gardens, holidays, chefs and/or one or more of the above either 'uncovered' or experiencing bloopers presented by Steve Penk.  How odd.  Instead they have commissioned a new seven-episode comedy series called 'Shane'.  When Frank Skinner is in Shane (i.e. starring in the TV Series 'Shane', not having rear intercourse with an Australian called Shane, just to clarify - obviously) he will be playing what is described as 'a wise cracking and politically unreconstructed minicab driver.'

A spokes-person for the show's producers (Avalon Television) said 'Skinner's character is swiftly becoming a disappointment to his wife, an embarrassment to his teenage kids, and a liability to his employers. It's good to see ITV continuing to back new comedy.'

And we agree.  Hopefully ITV is now making a vague gesture towards producing programmes that someone somewhere may wish to watch, as many people now seem to think that watching ITV is only mildly preferable to 'being forced to have rear intercourse with an Australian called Shane'. (see ITV, we can rehash the same old material with no-one noticing too).

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