Joanne Lau interview

Joanne is a Canadian-Chinese writer living in the UK and is absolutely KILLING it. She's had success with basically every writing competition going (including the BBC Writersroom and BAFTA Rocliffe), writes regularly for TV, radio and stage, and somehow also manages to be an actual scientist.

With the Damoclean threat of BBC funding cuts being waved above Auntie's channels and stations, this new-talent comedy seems just the kind of show it should be investing in to justify its existence. Here lie sketches and standup from a cast of young comics, including last year's Chortle student comic of the year, Joe Lycett, and others including Joanne Lau, Imran Yusuf and Sarah Campbell.

Often, TV comedy is a slow-moving carousel of the same old, established names. So welcome this pilot, which gives young comics a shop window for their stand-up and sketches. Do you know any of these names? Naz Osmanoglu, Joe Lycett, Imran Yusuf, Lou Sanders, Jason Patterson, Joanne Lau, Ben Sarpong, Eric Lampaert, Victor Daniels, Amy Hoggart, Price Abdi, Annette Fagon, Sarah Campbell? Me neither. Most of them are unknown for a reason, but shows like this only have to find one likely future star: my money's on Miss London.