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Comedy North, part of Vision Productions Comedy, and Baby Cow Manchester announce today a year-long collaboration to develop comedy scripts for production out of MediaCityUK in Salford.

This ambitious new deal comes as ±«Óãtv Three's long-running, hit comedy Ideal, a co-production between ±«Óãtv In House and Baby Cow, celebrates its 50th episode (9 June, 10.30pm, ±«Óãtv Three).

Head of ±«Óãtv In House Comedy, Mark Freeland, says: "As our commitment to comedy being produced from the North increases, I can think of no one better with whom to partner than the creative comedy minds of Baby Cow. Together, if we can develop some more comedies that last for 50 episodes and beyond, and like Ideal, are so damn good, then we will be able to say it has worked fabulously well."

Baby Cow's Managing Director, Henry Normal, adds: "It's exciting to be developing comedy with ±«Óãtv Comedy North. The new MediaCityUK media centre is a new adventure for all of us."

Steve Coogan says: "Having co-produced seven series of Ideal together we are reasonably confident the  ±«Óãtv Comedy North/Baby Cow combination can work well."

The joint venture will see ±«Óãtv In House Comedy and Baby Cow join forces in order to develop a number of narrative scripts that will seek to bring through the next generation of on and off screen comedy talent from the North of England.

CP