British Comedy Guide

Channel 4 announces first Comedy Lab 2011 pilot

Thursday 10th February 2011, 6:33pm by Ian Wolf


Kabadasses. Image shows from L to R: Latte (Kulvinder Ghir), Emily (Josie Long), The Marauding Moustache (Tony Jayawardena), Bobby (Shazad Latif), Vin (Jack Doolan), Shobna (Mandi Sidhu), Martin (Ian Bonar), Big Dave (Dale Meeks). Copyright: Objective Productions

Channel 4 have announced details of one of their Comedy Lab pilots for 2011 - a sitcom about the Indian sport kabaddi.

Kabadasses is about friends Bobby and Vin who attempt to set up a multi-racial kabaddi team. The pilot has been written by Nikesh Shukla, with Anil Gupta (Bromwell High) producing and directing. The executive producer for Objective Productions will be Phil Clarke.

Kabaddi - which gained a small British following in the early 1990s when Channel 4 ran a game show on the sport - is a close-contact team game. Particularly popular in India and Bangladesh, it is similar to wrestling.

The pilot has been commissioned by Nerys Evans. She said: "Nikesh has created such a unique and funny world with Kabadasses, he's definitely a talent to watch. We've also managed to assemble the dream team to work alongside him."

Kabadasses - along with the other Comedy Lab pilots yet to be announced - will be broadcast in the autumn.

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