Mammoth order of nine more episodes for Mike Bubbins' hit BBC sitcom
Mammoth is about to quadruple in size, with creator and star Mike Bubbins revealing that the BBC sitcom's second series will feature nine episodes.
The corporation announced last month that the comedy, about a 1970s PE teacher, presumed dead in a skiing trip avalanche but then thawed out 45 years later in the present day, would return. However, it hasn't disclosed how many episodes will follow April's initial run of three.
But in his sometime role as "the lock-in landlord" on Eleri Sion's BBC Radio Wales show, Bubbins told her: "The BBC got in touch to tell me that they've commissioned nine episodes of Mammoth... nine network episodes of the big fella."
Co-starring Sian Gibson, Joseph Marcell, Mali Ann Rees, Joel Davison and William Thomas, Mammoth's first series was written by the stand-up with Paul Doolan (Death Valley, Trollied) and aired on BBC Two and BBC One Wales.
The first episode drew the largest audience outside of news bulletins in its 10pm slot with 430,000 viewers and more will have come to it on iPlayer.
Bubbins said: "I'll start writing it in probably July this year, it's going to take me ten months to write, nine or ten months to write. I imagine we'll start recording next summer ... this is big news, it's lovely."