Monday 17th August 2020

Hit UKTV Original Meet The Richardsons will return to UKTV's award-winning comedy entertainment channel Dave for a second series (8x40') and two Christmas special episodes (2x40'). The brand new commission, starring married comedians Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont, follows the knockout ratings success of the first series which averaged 1.13million viewers per episode*. Written by Lucy Beaumont and Tim Reid (Car Share) and produced by Second Act Productions, Meet The Richardsons offers a fictional window into the funny and frustrated marriage of Jon Richardson and Lucy Beaumont as they give viewers a glimpse of their life in Yorkshire.

Lucy Beaumont said:

So glad to be getting paid to have an argument again, lockdown has been weird living with someone who has spent his life practising social distancing and frequent handwashing - if the government advise wearing beige cardigans and being a tedious grump I know something has been going on.

Jon Richardson said:

It's great news that there will be a second series of Meet The Richardsons. I can't wait to give away the few private moments of my life that aren't already in the public doman and welcome the crew back to "The D & B" with open arms. It was getting boring drinking alone in there anyway. Really. Fantastic stuff.

The second series centres on the further frustrations of married life, the clash of career and personal life and how Jon and Lucy have been coping since viewers last saw them, including dealing with life after lockdown, which Jon predicted of course, creating the perfect family Christmas and Lucy's mum Gill spotting some spooky going's on in The Dog and Bastard.

The series is commissioned by Iain Coyle, UKTV's head of comedy entertainment and ordered by Luke Hales, Dave channel director. Richard Watsham is UKTV's director of commissioning and Steve North is UKTV's genre general manager for comedy and entertainment. Meet The Richardsons will be directed and produced by Lee Hupfield and Eddie Stafford from Second Act Productions.

Iain Coyle said:

I'm so delighted with this commission. With his own pub in his back garden and his general reticence to socialise, there are very few people more prepared for a pandemic than Jon Richardson and I'm sure 2020 has put zero strain on his and Lucy's marriage.

Luke Hales added:

I couldn't be prouder of this show, Jon and Lucy have created something really unique, really relate-able and really, really funny. I'm so glad our brilliant viewers enjoyed the show as much as we do at Dave and the whole team can't wait to see how much Jon has enjoyed social distancing and isolation, how much Lucy hasn't, and what a Richardsons Christmas is like.

Series one aired earlier this year and episode one delivered a 7-day consolidated figure of 830k making it the strongest launch of a brand new original series on Dave in over five years**. It was also a hit with younger viewers, premiering with a 10.34% 16-34 audience share.

The first series of Meet The Richardsons is available to watch now on UKTV Play. The special episodes will air later this year and the full second series will air in 2021.

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Notes to Editors:
- Meet The Richardsons' final Total Consolidated average for the series is 1.13m individuals, peaking at 1.4m with ep 1.
- Since Storage Hunters UK in 2014, this also means the first episode launched to an audience higher than Taskmaster in 2015 (551k).
- In its timeslot, Dave was the #1 channel for 16-34s, period. (including terrestrials).

For more information and interview requests, please contact: Gem Pinkney - UKTV Publicity Manager

About Dave

Freeview 19, Sky 111, Virgin 127, YouView 19, Freesat 157, BT & TalkTalk 19

On demand on UKTVPlay

Ever since it was knee high to a TV remote, Dave had an idea. It wanted to be the first place viewers would come for brand-new, award-winning comedy entertainment from the biggest and brightest stars and production companies in the UK. And in the years since, it has launched some of the most exciting and best-loved titles on TV, including the launch of Taskmaster. The channel's critically-acclaimed established comedy hits Hypothetical, Jon Richardson: Ultimate Worrier and Comedians Giving Lectures will shortly welcome the forthcoming Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable. And it's not just in front of the camera where the comic genius lies either, with a wealth of scripted treasure such as Sliced, the upcoming Meet the Richardsons and a first ever feature-length special for Red Dwarf.

Dave's not content on just making you laugh and share gags with your mates though. Expedition with Steve Backshall and Hurricane Man show off regions and aspects of the earth never before seen on TV while the resurrection of the hit series World's Most Dangerous Roads promises to test some of the UK's biggest comedic friendships to their absolute limits. Eddie Eats America and Big Zuu's Big Eats deliver mouth-watering food shows with a Dave twist while Red Bull Soapbox continues to delight with its boundless capacity for invention.

The partnership between Dave and CALM continues to grow, having launched the "Be The Mate You'd Want" campaign, the Conversations Against Living Miserably podcast and its first commission on the horizon, Comedy Against Living Miserably for three stand-up specials.

Reaching 20million viewers a month, Dave's come a long way, but it's only just getting warmed up.

dave.uktv.co.uk / @davechannel

About UKTV

UKTV has been at the forefront of branded television for over 25 years, entertaining the nation with programmes they love. Its leading brands - Dave, Gold, W, Drama, Alibi, Eden and Yesterday - span comedy, entertainment, natural history, factual and drama, and are delivered to audiences through UKTV Play, Freeview, Sky, Virgin Media, BT, TalkTalk, YouView, Freesat and Amazon Fire. The broadcaster is a significant investor in British creativity and is committed to working with new and established writers, directors and programme-makers.

UKTV is part of BBC Studios, the UK's most-awarded production company, a world-class distributor with international branded services, and a commercial subsidiary of the world's leading public service broadcaster, the BBC.

corporate.uktv.co.uk | press.uktv.co.uk | @uktvpress

About Second Act Productions Second Act Productions was set up by Andrew O'Connor and Paul Sandler in 2015 as one of the companies in the ITV-backed Cat's on the Roof Media Group. It is run by Lee Hupfield and focusses on scripted and unscripted comedy, topical entertainment and drama.