As a follow-up to a recent post on the in’s and out’s of getting a comedy series commissioned from the BBC, I thought it would be of interest to everyone to see just what’s on the slate for the coming year from an output standpoint. Thanks to our good friends over the The British Comedy Guide, here’s a quick look at some of the programs currently on tap from both the BBC and Channel 4.

Of particular note from Channel 4’s proposed line-up comes the news of a 4th season of The IT Crowd, written by Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books) and starring Chris O’Dowd, Richard Ayoade and Katherine Parkinson. Looking at the rest of the slate, there seems to be an overabundance of sketch, stand-up, chat and panel shows for 2010, all of which, historically, have had a very difficult time translating to a U.S. audience.

Others of note that sound really promising and are currently in development at BBC, Sky and Channel 4 and will, hopefully, find their way to the small screen in 2010 include the following:

• Single Father – David Tennant stars in the comedy drama about, you guessed it, a single father bringing up his four children after the death of his partner.
• Albert’s Memorial – starring Sir David Jason (Only Fools and Horses, Open All Hours), this black comedy is a one-off special about two World War II veterans.
• The City Vicar – stars Tom Hollander (In the Loop) in sort of a Vicar of Dibley-type sitcom except he’s male and he goes from a sleepy little Dibley-like village to an urban parish in London.
• Whites – starring the great Alan Davies (QI, Jonathan Creek) as a celebrity chef whose grand plans somehow don’t always match his lack of concentration.
• Going Postal – all I need to mention here is that this program, which is still very much in development, stars Richard Coyle (Jeff from Coupling), David Suchet (Agatha Christie’s Poirot) and Andrew Sachs (Fawlty Towers). Hopefully, this will see the light of day.

There’s also a UK-version of the U.S. hit, Dharma and Greg, but I’m going to just let that one go, along with We Are Mongrels, billed as an adult puppet comedy about a fox, a hound, a street cat and a sarcastic pigeon. As I have always said, I can’t make this stuff up.