Micky Flanagan working on autobiographical BBC comedy
- Micky Flanagan has been working on an autobiographical comedy for the BBC
- A rehearsed reading for 'Til It Shines took place last year, ahead of the comic's return to stand-up
- Flanagan was developing 'Til It Shines with This Country's Simon Mayhew-Archer and Tom George but they've since left the project
Micky Flanagan has been developing an autobiographical comedy drama with the BBC, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
A rehearsed reading of 'Til It Shines took place last year but it is currently unclear if the corporation is taking the show forward.
Flanagan, who has been doing warm-up dates ahead of his first live stand-up tour in more than five years, has kept a low profile in recent times but has been working on a television comedy based on his life for about a decade.
A pilot was shot in 2018 with the working title Double Busy, which Flanagan co-wrote with the This Country team of producer Simon Mayhew-Archer and director Tom George.
BCG understands that Mayhew-Archer and George left the project in March the following year after they delivered the non-broadcast pilot, which by then had been retitled 'Til It Shines.
In 2013, Flanagan told BBC Breakfast that he had written television scripts for a comedy about an "East End boy done good".
He said: "I've been sitting down writing the first drafts of a sitcom which I want to do.
"It's going to be purely based on me. I didn't want to expand beyond that. I know myself. Write about what you know.
"It's about my life now, living where I do in Dulwich [South London]. I don't want to be somebody else, I can only play myself."
Asked if it was "about an East End boy who makes good and then eats organic food and stuff?", Flanagan said: "Yes, and then occasionally pops to KFC for a treat, that's the idea."
Earlier this year it was reported that Flanagan was leaving Dulwich to move to a £1.5 million mansion in Hampshire.
The comic previously made What Chance Change?, an autobiographical stand-up show for the BBC on Radio 4, which ran for a single series in 2010.
A BBC spokesperson declined to comment on 'Til It Shines.