Bad Education and Detectorists are among the shows set to represent the future of BBC comedy.
Speaking at the BBC Comedy Festival in Newcastle (the current City of Comedy), BBC Director of Comedy Jon Petrie laid out the plans for BBC Comedy going forward, revealing they'd be investing an extra £10 million in high-impact comedy over the next two years.
One of the biggest announcements was the return of Bad Education, which is coming back in a big way. First off, we're being treated to a one-off, 10-year anniversary special, which will lead to a brand-new series of Jack Whitehall's hit BBC Three comedy.
The series originally ran from 2012 to 2014 and concluded with the Bad Education movie in 2015.
The anniversary special will see Jack Whitehall back as useless teacher Alfie Wickers one last time. In the special, Alfie will head back to Abbey Grove alongside some of his former students for a chaotic careers day.
In the upcoming, six-part series, former classmates Stephen (Layton Williams) and Mitchell (EastEnders star Charlie Wernham) will find themselves on the other side of the desk as newly-qualified teachers to a new set of troublesome students.
Jack Whitehall says: "I'm so pumped for a ten-year anniversary special of Bad Education, the show that launched my career. I have such fond memories and it will be great for the fans to check in and find out what class K have been up to since they left and if Alfie Wickers is still as much of a melt as they remember.
"The new rebooted series is so exciting. I’m so old and irrelevant I’ve decided it’s best I take more of a producer role with Bad Education, but we’ve assembled a young, talented group of writers led by the brilliant Nathan Bryon who will be carrying the torch," Jack added.
We also learned that three-time BAFTA-winning comedy Detectorists is set to return for a one-off, 75-minute special later this year.
The series was last on TV in December 2017, and this special is set to bring us up to speed with what Andy, Lance and the rest of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club have been up to in the meantime.
Director, writer and star Mackenzie Crook said: "It was 2017 when we were last in Danebury and I miss my old friends in the DMDC. I've had a story percolating for a while and I thought it was worth getting Lance, Andy and the rest of the band back together for.
"The affection expressed for Detectorists over the years has been incredible and I hope fans of the show will enjoy this new, extended episode."
Other announcements included a BBC Three short called Mobility, the second season of Greg Davies' crime-scene comedy, The Cleaner, season 3 of Jerk and a third and final series of Neil Forsyth's drama, Guilt.
You can stream past episodes of Detectorists and Bad Education on BBC iPlayer.
