BBC3 to air Manchester music comedy

BBC3 controller Danny Cohen has commissioned a comedy series about a fictional Manchester record label starring Ralf Little and Johnny Vegas. Called Massive, the new six-part series follows Danny, played by Royle Family star Little, and Shay, played by Carl Rice, a star of the current BBC3 comedy Scallywagga, who form a new label called Shady Records.

Vegas plays Shay's father in the comedy, which is currently filming in Manchester and will be broadcast on BBC3 this autumn. The cast also includes Paul Kaye, Philip Jackson, Christine Bottomley, Lorraine Cheshire, Joel Fry, Steve Furst, Craig Parkinson, Beverley Rudd, Faye McKeever, Joanne King, and Craig Parkinson.

"En route they pluck a girl band from the obscurity of Superb'uns cake shop, get sued by Eminem, get lost in the Pennines - where they find the new Oasis - and get involved in a scam involving a Macedonian prostitute called Zora who has a revolutionary way of making shish kebabs," a BBC spokeswoman said.

The series is being made by BBC Comedy North, the department run by the corporation's creative head of comedy, Kenton Allen, and has been written by Damian Lanigan, a former member of the 1980s band The Twentieth Legion. Massive's producer is Jim Poyser, whose writing credits include episodes for Shameless. The director is David Kerr, who recently worked on BBC comedy That Mitchell and Webb Look. Allen is executive producer.

Allen said: "Massive combines Ralf Little and Johnny Vegas with a terrific supporting cast and Damian Lanigan's vivid scripts about rock'n'roll lifestyles on a Primark budget. It's shaping up to be a unique comedy treat for this autumn on BBC3." The series was commissioned by Cohen and Lucy Lumsden, the BBC controller of comedy commissioning.