BBC America buys new Jennifer Saunders comedies

BBC America have bought Jennifer Saunders new sitcom "Jam and Jerusalem" as well as the new BBC2 comedy she will star in early next year, "The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle".

BBCA will be hoping that "Jam and Jerusalem", which will be titled "Clatterford" abroad, is received better by US audiences than it has been here. However, it must be noted that despite the generally very negative reaction the sitcom's third episode was still watched by a respectable 5.1 million last Friday on BBC1.

In "The Life and Times of Vivienne Vyle" Jennifer Saunders plays a daytime TV presenter and agony aunt; the woman Britain turns to for real-life confessions and shocking revelations. This new comedy, written by Little Angels's psychologist Dr Tanya Byron, will be broadcast on BBC2 in early 2007. This second purchase is a fairly large gamble for BBC America as they are staking money on a show which has yet to prove itself in terms of audience ratings.

Both shows will be broadcast on BBC America sometime in 2007. A date has yet to be set.

The American cable channel is currently showing more reliable ratings winners in the form of My Family, series two of The Worst Week Of My Life, ITV sitcom Hardware and C4 favourite Black Books so it'll be interesting to see how these new purchases perform for them next year (our prediction: they'll lose viewers!)