Shane Allen
- Writer, executive producer, executive and commissioner
Press clippings Page 5
In My Skin series confirmed
The BBC has confirmed a four-episode commission for Welsh mental health black comedy In My Skin, about a teenage girl whose mother is sectioned.
British Comedy Guide, 28th June 2019TV comedy isn't under threat from political correctness
I can't think of the last time I was offended by anything I watched but Shane Allen, controller of BBC comedy commissioning, thinks that television comedy is under threat in the new age of political correctness.
Alice Jones, i Newspaper, 19th April 2019How social media is changing comedy
Social media is now the go-to platform to showcase everything we do, and comedians have been quick to use it to promote their work.
Kash Jones, BBC, 15th April 2019PC Twitter isn't killing comedy, it highlights bigotry
The BBC comedy chief says social media is stopping comedy from testing boundaries. Has he seen Fleabag and Derry Girls?
Jack Bernhardt, The Guardian, 15th April 2019The show that shaped me - Shane Allen: Father Ted
The subversive surrealism of Craggy Island taught the BBC head of comedy that the best ideas cannot be contained in a top-line pitch.
Shane Allen, Broadcast, 25th February 2019Show that shaped me: Shane Allen on Father Ted
The subversive surrealism of Craggy Island showed the BBC head of comedy that the best ideas cannot be contained in a top-line pitch.
Shane Allen, Broadcast, 25th February 2019Comedy.co.uk Awards 2018 winners revealed
The public have voted Derry Girls as Best New TV Sitcom in the Comedy.co.uk Awards 2018, with Inside No. 9 named Comedy Of The Year 2018 for the second year running. Other winners include Friday Night Dinner, Taskmaster and Vic & Bob's Big Night Out.
British Comedy Guide, 4th February 2019Mash Report: 'comedy' more like Corbyn Party Political
Is there anything less funny than BBC comedy?
Charlotte Gill, Daily Mail, 16th December 2018Andie MacDowell is the new Cuckoo in the Thompson nest
Hollywood star Andie MacDowell has been confirmed to replace Taylor Lautner in the new series of Cuckoo, which debuts on Friday 4th January 2019.
British Comedy Guide, 7th December 2018In his new memoir, How to Produce Comedy Bronze, former BBC head of comedy Jon Plowman allows himself what he calls a "moany bit" about how the influence of his former department has declined at the corporation. "It's not the force in fun that it once was and this is partly because of competition but also because of the hours of comedy that have been lost on the main channels because, apparently, on the main channels people don't want to laugh any more," he says.
The Beeb's current head of comedy, Shane Allen, tends to put things more succinctly. At a BBC press presentation in April 2015, his distinctive Northern Irish tones could clearly be heard heckling then BBC2 controller Kim Shillinglaw as she was introducting her slate of dramas for the new season: "Drama's fucking shite. It's all dead kids."
Private Eye, 19th September 2018