Boomers and Citizen Khan get another series
Boomers, the sitcom about a trio of newly-retired couples living in Norfolk, is to return for a second series.
Starring Alison Steadman, Philip Jackson, Russ Abbot, Stephanie Beacham, James Smith and Paula Wilcox, the comedy launched on BBC One in August, picking up 4.45 million viewers.
Citizen Khan, Adil Ray's studio audience sitcom about a family living in Birmingham, has also been given the green light for another run. The show is currently in its third series, with episodes going out on Friday nights.
Series 2 of Boomers and Series 4 of Citizen Khan will appear in BBC One in 2015.
The news was revealed by commissioner Shane Allen, as he outlined his plans for 2015 in an interview with trade magazine Broadcast
Allen mentioned within the interview that a new multi-camera sitcom created by Ruth Jones is under consideration for the corporation's flagship channel. Although he gave no details on the new show, he said: "Ruth is fantastic and we'd love to do something with her. We were talking studio shows and she would be absolutely perfect for that."
BBC One is having to find replacements for Miranda, which is bowing out this Christmas, and Mrs Brown's Boys, which is expected to continue as seasonal specials rather than further whole series. Two new specials will be shown this festive season, with another two planned for Christmas 2015.
Allen admitted to Broadcast it would be "hard to get another series" of Mrs Brown's Boys because of Brendan O'Carroll's other priorities.
In an attempt to find more hit comedy shows, the BBC will run another Comedy Playhouse season, this time consisting of "up to six" pilots. As previously reported, Mountain Goats, which was piloted under the title Miller's Mountain in last year's Comedy Playhouse, will become a series in 2015.
Other new shows in the works for BBC One include Peter Kay's Car Share; The Kennedys, a comedy drama starring Katherine Parkinson; Matt Lucas comedy Pompidou; and undercover reporter sitcom Woody (pictured).
Moving on to talk about BBC Two, Allen said the channel is "going through quite a reinvention", adding: "We want to get away from menopause comedy - those kind of middle-class, midlife crisis pieces that are individually brilliant, but collectively homogeneous."
As previously reported, new shows confirmed for BBC Two include Boy Meets Girl, Danny Baker's Cradle To Grave, The Javone Prince Show and Paul Whitehouse's character comedy Nurse.
The executive admitted: "Sketch shows have suffered in the past few years as online and funny factual has stolen a march, I want to claim that back." A pilot starring Morgana Robinson is amongst his plans in this area.
Allen is not concerned that it looks like BBC Three will go online-only. Comedy is a "priority genre" in the new plans for the channel, resulting in a budget of over £10m being made available to make eight long-form (traditional 30+ minute) comedy shows a year for the brand, and further shorter-length series on top of that.
He told Broadcast: "It's exciting to be part of something that's changing. Nobody has the answers about how you release something and how people find it, but in terms of spend, comedy will be a big part of BBC Three in the future. There are going to more opportunities in the long run."
There is no news yet on what shows will be commissioned for BBC Three. Most of BBC Three's current hit shows, including Russell Howard's Good News and Jack Whitehall's Backchat (pictured) have transferred to BBC Two, whilst Bad Education and Some Girls have "come to a natural end".
BBC Four, which recently had its biggest comedy ratings to date with Detectorists, will continue to produce a handful of comedy shows each year. Broadcast notes the channel, which launched The Thick Of It, "remains hungry for satirical pieces". Allen revealed BBC Four recently attempted to make a comedy about the newspaper hacking trial but the project didn't make it to screen as "the script wasn't right".
In 2015, iPlayer will act as a platform for original shortform comedy too. A batch of nine short comedies themed around romance will be released in February "under a Funny Valentine's banner".