Head of comedy at Channel Five quits

Graham Smith, the head of comedy and entertainment at Channel Five, has announced he is leaving the broadcaster. According to reports, Smith has quit his role out of frustration at Five's lack of support for scripted comedy.

Smith joined the channel in August 2004 as part of a co-production initiative between Five and Paramount Comedy. He was charged with generating programmes for both channels, with the emphasis on home-grown sitcoms. Programmes that have come out of this project have included the controversial Respectable, and Suburban Shootout - the latter of which has since been sold to over 30 countries.

However last year, following Sharon Horgan's Angelo's, Five announced that they were giving up on sitcoms, and would instead now be concentrating on developing cheaper and easier comedy formats, like the panel show.

Smith has said: "I came to do scripted comedy and, for the past 18 months, I've not been able to do that. I'm planning a return to making sitcoms and comedy dramas and have two film projects in development."

Five interim chief executive Mark White, who has also had to contend with chief executive Jane Lighting, controller of acquisitions Vanessa Brookman and managing director of content Lisa Opie resigning this year, thanked Smith for his work.

A spokesman has said comedy will remain part of its programming mix, but there are no plans to replace Smith.