In 2023, Big Finish Productions and Write on Comedy united to revive the BBC’s legendary anthology series Comedy Playhouse and ran an open submission competition for sitcom pilot scripts. 

The winning script, The Cracks Are Showing by Cy Henty and Alan Ronald, plus the five runners-up have now been produced as full-cast audio episodes. These six hilarious pilots will be released this November in one downloadable volume. 

Big Finish Originals – Comedy Playhouse is now available to pre-order as a digital download to own for just £19.99, exclusively here. 

Everyone who purchases a copy from the Big Finish website will also have the opportunity to vote for their favourite pilot episode to be made into a full series.  

The six comedy pilots are: 

Sad Sunk Rock by Tom Worsley 

After his girlfriend dumps him and he proves unbearable, Victor is sent to join three other marine biologists on the isolated island of Sad Sunk Rock; they are Elspeth, who has been there for 38 years and talks to the sheep, Deborah, who has had no contact with the outside world, and Ally, a wild-eyed Scotsman who is technically twins, slightly radioactive and who once fought an alligator in the Amazon. Victor’s first thought is to return to the mainland at the first opportunity, but somehow he begins to feel that he might fit in... 

Sad Sunk Rock stars Forbes Masson (The High Life), Siobhán Redmond (Between the Lines), Gwithian Evans, and Rameet Rauli. 

Scribbling by Amy Xander 

Scribbling follows four inhabitants of a rural, West Country town – Madeleine, Edward, Ling and Beth – who reluctantly bond after joining a writers’ group run by brazen new resident Laurie, a former entertainer still desperate for an audience. 

Scribbling stars Suzy Bloom (Emma), Timothy Bentinck (The Archers), and Sagar Radia (Industry), as well as Suni La, Lizzie Worsdell, Jessica Martin, Helen Goldwyn, and Clive Hayward. 

Members by Jack Bradfield & Fergus Macdonald 

The House of Commons during the reign of King George II is a strange and cloistered world of the corrupt and the eccentric, where the main businesses of the day are boozing, whoring, and trying to get pudding served earlier. Due to an administrative mix-up, the young Henry Fthistle finds himself elected to parliament, and finds it is almost impossible to leave. 

Members stars Nicholas Briggs (Doctor Who), Dan Starkey (Doctor Who), and Maddison Bulleyment (Six: The Musical), alongside Dickon Gough, Raj Ghatak, Stephen Riddle, and Matthew Woodyatt. 

Square Peggs by Jenny Deveaux & Phil Butcher 

It’s the Peggs first day in their new country home, but all is not well – there’s no mobile signal, no takeaway, the neighbours are... different, and Dawn’s run over the previous owner’s cat. Can anything else go wrong? 

Square Peggs stars Sacha Dhawan – known as the Master from Doctor Who, as well as for his role in The Great – alongside Rachel Fenwick, Annette Holland, Clive Hayward, and Sagar Radia. 

Golden Sands by Toby Walker 

Chortle-by-Sea is a bleak, desolate and decaying seaside town, and few visitors come to purchase the peculiar novelties from Julie’s gift shop or to sample the delights of Sue’s chip shop. And it is not much of a place for the young, awkward Rowan and Sophie to have a blossoming romance. It is, however, the ideal place for a murder. 

Golden Sands stars Judy Flynn (The Brittas Empire) and Melanie Kilburn (The Bill), plus Harry Chalmers-Morris, Holly-Marie Michael, and Duncan Wisbey. 

The Cracks are Showing by Alan Ronald & Cy Henty

When Karloff goes for an interview to be an ‘office scapegoat’, he is found to be too optimistic for the position, and is thrown out of the window. In his death, he is joined by painter and philosopher William Blake on a metaphysical quest through the underworld to find out who is responsible for humankind’s misery. 

The Cracks are Showing is performed by its writers, the comedy duo known as The Electric Head, with additional voices from Barnaby Edwards. 

Producer and script editor Jonathan Morris said: “It has been a huge joy to work with all these writers and, at the end of every recording session, my face ached from smiling. We have six very different scripts, covering every style of comedy from domestic to historical to metaphysical. And they all have fabulous casts, including one or two comedy legends.  

“Members has a bit of a Blackadder the Third feel, set in the cloistered world of the 18th century House of Commons, with really ripe characters and dialogue. Sad Sunk Rock is about four marine biologists stuck on an isolated island, which reminded me of cult shows like Nightingales and Father Ted. Golden Sands is about oddballs in a rundown seaside town, a bit like Broadchurch but with the one thing Broadchurch was missing – jokes.  And The Cracks Are Showing is a Python-esque take on Dante’s Divine Comedy. They're all great, and they all have the potential to go to a series.” 

Producer Lizzie Worsdell added: “I’m delighted that Big Finish listeners can now hear these six winning comedy pilots from an exciting new group of writers. Square Peggs will have you laughing out loud with its hilariously spot-on depiction of rural life. It also features Sacha Dhawan in a role unlike anything Big Finish fans have heard from him before. In Scribbling, we meet five distinct characters who are all incredibly funny and endearing as they navigate the quirks of a local writers’ group.” 

Big Finish Originals – Comedy Playhouse is now available to pre-order as a digital download to own for just £19.99, exclusively here. All listeners who purchase from the website will be contacted at a later date and asked to vote for their favourite pilot episode to be made into a full series.  

All the above prices (including pre-order and multibuy bundle discounts) are fixed for a limited time only and guaranteed no later than 31 January 2026.