I Feel Your Pain, I Feel Your Shame: Showtime Orders Marc Wootton Comedy

Is it just me or is Showtime suddenly really hip?

Besides for Weeds and their amazing comedy pilots United States of Tara and the untitled Edie Falco comedy (all top-notch and likely to earn series stripes any day now), Showtime just scored major points in my book by signing a deal with brilliant British comedian Marc Wootton (My New Best Friend, Nighty Night) for a six-episode comedy series.

Under the deal, Wootton will develop and star in a new alternative comedy series in which he'll interact with everyday folks; rather than order a pilot, the pay cabler has taken the unusual step of giving a blind series commitment to the untitled project. Hell, Showtime entertainment president Bob Greenblatt called Wootton "the new Sasha Baron Cohen," praise indeed.

Anyone who has seen Wootton knows that this is a wise move on Showtime's part. His BBC series, High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, is one of the most underrated and sadly undiscussed great series of the last five years. (Don't believe me? Take a look back into the Televisionary archives for a review of Shirley Ghostman from two years ago... She knows what I'm talking about.)

It might be a random bit of news that made an Anglophile like myself positively gleeful, but I can't bloody wait to see what Wootton develops. If it's even as half as funny as Shirley Ghostman, we're due for a hilarious, painfully funny comedy series that will have you gasping for air. Showtime execs, pat yourself on the back: you've done well.

In other comedy programming news, Showtime announced that it had renewed sketch comedy series Tracey Ullman's State of the Union for a second season of seven episodes, scheduled to return in 2009.

What's On Tonight

8 pm: Ghost Whisperer (CBS); Most Outrageous Moments/Most Outrageous Moments (NBC); Friday Night SmackDown! (CW; 8-10 pm); 20/20 (ABC); Are We There Yet? (FOX; 8-10 pm)

9 pm: Moonlight (CBS); Dateline NBC (NBC; 9-11 pm); Duel (ABC)

10 pm: NUMB3RS (CBS); 20/20 (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Sarah Jane Adventures on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode of the Doctor Who spin-off ("Eye of the Gorgon, Part Two"), Sarah Jane and the kids battle against the Gorgon and her sinister flock of nuns after Maria's father is turned to stone. Afterwards, it's Part One of "Warriors of Kudlak," in which Sarah Jane and Maria investigate the disappearance of a young boy that leads them to link his disappearance and those of several other missing children with a series of storms.

9 pm: Doctor Who on Sci Fi.

Season Four of Doctor Who continues tonight with "The Fires of Pompei," as the Doctor and Donna travel to ancient Rome but find themselves in Pompei just before what the Doctor calls "Volcano Day," also known as the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, which--you know--wiped out the entire city.

10 pm: Battlestar Galactica on Sci Fi.

On tonight's episode ("The Road Less Traveled"), the crew of the Demetrius--led by wayward warrior Kara Thrace--encounters much tension as they continue to search for Earth, based on Starbuck's fleeting remembrances and visions.

From Across the Pond: "High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman"

I feel your pain, I feel your shame, but you're not to blame. You don't watch High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman, despite my many attempts to bring an American audience to this British import. I've tried talking about it in my What I'm Watching section, I've tried randomly dropping mentions into other posts, and I've tried sending telepathic messages to you, dear readers, all in an attempt to get you to tune into this hilarious and cringe-inducing show.

Currently airing on BBC America, High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman is a spoof psychic show quite unlike anything we currently have on U.S. television. Think Da Ali G Show crossed with Medium with a bit of Waiting for Guffman's Corky St. Claire thrown in there for good measure, all narrated by ubiquitous Brit actor Patrick Stewart. It should be noted there is no such person as psychic Shirley Ghostman. No, Shirley is a character created by comedian/actor Marc Wootton, who plays Shirley to the hilt as a white-suited, fur coat-wearing fraud, complete with frosted nails and a blonde mullet, and imbues him with a caustic, aggressive personality that is as eccentric as it is sadistic.

The show consists of several segments, all enacted by Wootton in various guises. The main sequence each week consists of Shirley Ghostman's appearance in an eerily lit (and garishly decorated) old church where he uses his dead dog Sheba as a spirit guide to read (and usually denigrate) the unsuspecting people in the church's audience, all of whom believe (at first anyway) that they are witnessing an actual psychic. Even worse, Shirley claims to have the ability to channel dead famous people, which he does to great and ghastly effect, channeling Princess Diana and Colonel Sanders before an uneasy and often horrified crowd. And each episode closes with a musical number in which Shirley is backed by a full Gospel choir as he sings a song channeled from beyond the grave from a famous singer (only after speedily issuing a bit of non-litigious business).

Shirley is far from alone in his quest. He has a crack team of "paranormalists" at his disposal, all of whom are played by the talented and twisted Wootton. Former pest control expert Alf Sczcurek is a Polish psychic who has seen too many viewings of Ghostbusters and now uses a homemade ghost-catching vacuum to catch errant spirits. Investigator Ian Jackson explores the darker mysteries of the occult, encountering a Rumpologist (seriously, you can't make this stuff up) who claims that she can predict the future by looking at people's butts. Finally, there's Colin Reynolds, a drunkard who claims he can psychically transform himself into any animal (notice I said psychically transform, not physically), usually with rather bizarre results. The funniest by far is Alf, who in one episode arrives at a woman's house to perform an exorcism... only to repeatedly hit on her, albeit in a mostly unintelligible accent.

My favorite ongoing gag on the show is Shirley's Spirit Academy, a sort of American Idol-style competition to find a psychic apprentice to train under Shirley. Each week, Shirley forces the contestants to perform increasingly bizarre feats, such as inanimate object reading, spirit channeling, and telepathic reading, before then allowing all of them (yes, all of them) onto the next round. Here's where it really gets wicked: Shirley invites them to stay at the Spirit Academy, which is actually a deserted and creepy former asylum. There they'll be forced to sleep on the floors in drafty, decaying rooms and, if they fail to psychically predict what they're being served for dinner, are sent to bed without food. And each week, Shirley devises some weird rite or ritual that he forces his "guests" to perform (last week's involved channeling a murderous spirit that haunts the asylum and kills his victims by defecating in their mouths... seriously) before eliminating one, who will be forced down "the walk of shame." It's both truly hilarious and disturbing at the same time. Why do these people--granted, a rather, um, eccentric and motley crew--remain part of the Spirit Academy instead of just walking out the front door? Why put up with this kind of torment? Well, they're on television, obviously, and Shirley plays to this with a knowing wink and a campy flair for drama.

Still, there's nothing that can beat the sight of Shirley interacting with the everyday public, as he visits antiques fairs and--in one of my favorite bits--goes to an optician to buy sunglasses because he feels that everyone is staring at him. They are, Shirley, but it's only because you are so damn hilarious.

"High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman" airs Friday evenings at 9 pm EST/10 pm PST on BBC America. (You can also catch a second airing tonight at 11 pm EST/ 8 pm PST.)

What's On Tonight

8 pm: NCIS (CBS); Celebrity Cooking Showdown (NBC); Gilmore Girls (WB); According to Jim/Hope & Faith (ABC); American Idol (FOX); America's Next Top Model (UPN)

9 pm: The Unit (CBS); Scrubs/Teachers (NBC); Pepper Dennis (WB); Hope & Faith/Less Than Perfect (ABC); House (FOX); Veronica Mars (UPN)

10 pm: Criminal Minds (CBS); Law & Order: SVU (NBC); Boston Legal (ABC)

What I'll Be Watching

8 pm: Gilmore Girls.

Hopefully continuing the high quality from last week's episode, tonight's brand new episode was written and directed by creator Amy Sherman-Palladino... and she usually delivers the goods. On tonight's episode ("I Get a Sidekick Out of You"), celebratory plans on both sides of Lane and Zach's wedding party get messed up in typical Gilmore fashion.

9 pm: Veronica Mars.

On a new episode of Veronica Mars ("Nevermind the Buttocks"), Veronica tries to locate the person who ran over a classmate's dog. Meanwhile, will be get closer to solving the mystery of the bus crash? While the Dick and Cassidy Casablancas insurance payoff is a nifty red herring, my money is definitely on Mayor Woody Goodman as the devious mastermind.