BBC Three commissions record label sitcom

BBC Three has commissioned a new sitcom starring Ralf Little and Johnny Vegas set at a Manchester record label.

Massive will be a six-part series about the lives of Danny (Little) and Shay (Carl Rice from Scallywagga) who form their own record label called "Shady Records". Vegas stars as Shay's father. Other people expected to appear are Paul Kaye, Philip Jackson, Christine Bottomley, Lorraine Cheshire, Joel Fry, Steve Furst, Beverley Rudd, Faye McKeever, Joanne King, and Craig Parkinson.

A spokeswoman for the BBC said: "En route they pluck a girl band from the obscurity of Superb'uns cake shop, get sued by Eminem, get lost in the Pennines - where they find the new Oasis - and get involved in a scam involving a Macedonian prostitute called Zora who has a revolutionary way of making shish kebabs."

Filming is currently taking place and the series will be broadcast in the autumn. Jim Poyser (Shameless) will be producer and David Kerr (That Mitchell and Webb Look) will direct. The series, as normal, was commissioned by the head of BBC Three Danny Cohen and the head of BBC Comedy Commissioning Lucy Lumsden. The series is being made by BBC Comedy North.