BBC Three Renews 'Bad Education', 'Bluestone 42' & 'Some Girls', Orders New Comedy Series & Pilot – TVWise

BBC Three is sticking with three of its top rated comedies.
The youth-skewing channel, which recently announced plans to move online with a dramatic budget cut in 2015, has renewed comedies Bad Education (which is also being remade by US network ABC), Bluestone 42 and Some Girls. All three have received six episode orders and will return to the channel for their third seasons either later this year or early next; ahead of BBC Three’s move online. In addition, BBC Three has commissioned a new prison comedy series titled 600 Days and a comedy pilot from Ash Atalla’s Roughcut Television titled Top Coppers.
600 Days follows straight-laced Luke, who finds himself sentenced to two years in a Young Offenders Institution along with his girlfriend’s brother Jason. Luke will have to rely on Jason’s street smarts to get him through. Unfortunately, Jason is a massive idiot. Created by Dan Swimer & Adam Kay, the series is produced in-house and stars Elis James, Kadiff Kirwan, Cariad Lloyd and Ricky Champ. The executive producer is Pete Thornton.
Top Coppers is described as action comedy about police detectives John Mahogany and Mick Rust. The half-hour project, which has received a pilot order, is produced by Roughcut Television and stars Conor McKenna, John Kearns, Charlotte Ritchie and Tom Bennett. The executive producer is Ash Atalla.
“BBC Three is at the heart of new comedy in the UK and is not only still on air, but thriving”, said BBC Three Controller Zai Bennett. “These four deliciously different and brilliantly written series and pilot demonstrate our ongoing commitment to bring our viewers more even more cutting edge, exciting and most importantly of all, funny, comedy this year.”
While Shane Allen, the BBC’s Controller of Comedy Commissioning, added: “This raft of new and returning comedy series celebrates how successful the comedy on Three remains and is a timely reminder that we’re still very much open for comedy business. To have three comedies hit a third series stride is a monumental achievement. With Top Coppers and 600 Days we’re backing a new wave of talent as both have sublime casts and are exciting additions to the comedy slate on BBC Three.”