The BBC has commissioned two new documentaries charting BBC Two's comedy heritage to celebrate the channel's fiftieth anniversary next month.

The channel launched on Monday 20th April 1964, with its first comedy, The Likely Lads (pictured), beginning in December of that year.

Inside The Comedy Vaults will show "special treats, clips and forgotten joy" from the channel's past. The programme will aim to highlight BBC Two's track record as an "innovator and comedy pioneer", and is said to include early appearances from the likes of Rik Mayall, Fry & Laurie, and some long-unseen Ronnie Barker and Peter Cook gems.

Meanwhile, 50 Years Of BBC Two Comedy will celebrate the channel's comedy history as a whole, with particular focus on its track record of supporting new comedy and comic talent, "from Fawlty Towers to The Wrong Mans, Spike Milligan to Shooting Stars, via The Office, M*A*S*H, Victoria Wood, The Fast Show and many, many others".

Contributors to the two-hour-long definitive history include Armando Iannucci, Ricky Gervais, Prunella Scales, Vic and Bob, Michael Palin, Catherine Tate, Sanjeev Bhaskar, The Goodies, Terry Jones, Sarah Millican, and Rebecca Front.

As previously announced, the channel's 50th birthday celebrations will also include Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse in a brand new satirical sketch show special spoofing some of the channel's most iconic programmes and personalities.

Meanwhile, 1990s British Asian sketch show Goodness Gracious Me will also return for a new special, once again starring Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kulvinder Ghir, Meera Syal and Nina Wadia.

Details on scheduling of the programmes have yet to be released, but all are expected to be broadcast around the channel's anniversary date toward the end of April.

Here is the first ever TV episode of Goodness Gracious Me, following a successful radio series: