Ben Elton writes new sitcom pilot for BBC One

Ben Elton has written a new sitcom pilot for BBC One.

Slings & Arrows is set in a health and safety department at a local council, and contains "a team of misfits who are hell bent on causing as much chaos as humanly possible", reports Chortle.

The Thin Blue Line's David Haig will star as the department's boss Gerald, described as an "exasperated everyman".

If the series is picked up, it will be Elton's first British sitcom for seven years after the short-lived Blessed in 2005.

The pilot will be recorded at Teddington Studios on Saturday (August 4), and will be directed by The Vicar of Dibley's Dewi Humphreys.

Ben Elton launched a new stand-up/sketch show in Australia, but it was axed after just two weeks due to poor viewing figures.

Sheridan Smith: 'Ronnie Biggs wife TV role made me broody'

Sheridan Smith has said that her new TV role made her broody.

The Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps star has taken on the role of Charmian Brent, the wife to notorious train robber Ronnie Biggs (Danny Mays).

The ITV1 show Mrs Biggs will air as a five-part drama, which will start from the couple's first meeting on a train in 1957 through to the date of the train robbery in 1963.

It will also feature details of the couple's lives on the run in Australia, as well as Biggs flying to Rio with the police closely on their tales.

When Biggs fled for Brazil, he left Brent and his three sons in Australia. While he was away, he fathered a child with another woman.

Smith said that she formed very close bonds with all of the children who were in the series and that she still keeps in contact with them now.

She said: "They all write me cards now. On my birthday I got lots of Mum cards."

Sheridan also spoke about the advice she got from the real Charmian Brent about her role, adding: "I've never been broody but after this I am!

"Charmian was an incredible mother and I only have dogs."

Mrs Biggs will air on ITV1 in the autumn.

'Dark Knight' star Cillian Murphy to lead BBC drama 'Peaky Blinders'

Cillian Murphy is to star in new BBC Two drama Peaky Blinders.

The six-part gangster drama has been written by Steven Knight (Eastern Promises).

The series follows ruthless mobster Tommy (Murphy), whose family control the "lawless post-war slum neighbourhoods" of Birmingham in 1919.

Tommy's family are known as the 'Peaky Blinders' due to their practice of sewing razor blades into the peaks of their caps, Deadline reports.

When a Belfast police chief challenges the crime family's reign, Tommy finds his leadership under threat.

Murphy is best known for his film credits, including Christopher Nolan's Batman films and 2002's 28 Days Later. His last television role was in 2001 BBC mini-series The Way We Live Now.

Peaky Blinders - directed by Otto Bathurst (Black Mirror) - will begin shooting in September and will air on BBC Two in 2013.

'Merlin' star Colin Morgan on series five: 'It's about the legends'

Merlin star Colin Morgan has spoken about the more "adult" fifth series.

The Irish actor told Entertainment Weekly that the new episodes will focus more on the show's core characters.

"It was always going to be a growing-up tale for all of us," he said. "We do have some brilliant guest stars - we've got Liam Cunningham coming in - but the stories are more focused now on the legends that we're going to become."

Morgan's co-star Katie McGrath (Morgana) agreed that the new series, expected to air on BBC One in late 2012, has a more adult feel.

"It's a three-year time-jump, so... we're all older," she explained. "We were playing... very early 20s at the start, now I feel like we've all started to play adults, which for us is a great change."

Game of Thrones star John Bradley will also appear in series five of Merlin, while Anthony Head will reprise his role as Uther for a guest appearance.

Michael Phelps's record-breaking Olympics gold scores 10.2m

Michael Phelps's clinching of his 19th Olympic medal was seen by a peak audience of over 10 million (40%) last night (July 31).

The USA swimmer, who now has 15 golds to his name after winning the freestyle, pulled in 9.7m on BBC One and 470k on temporary digital channel BBC Olympics 1.

For the duration of the coverage between 7pm and 10pm, viewing never dipped below 5m, while BBC Three's screening of the Team GB women's football match against Brazil logged 1.45m (6.2%).

The final of the women's gymnastics attracted a hefty 4.79m (35.3%) to BBC One from 4pm, prior to which Zara Phillips's silver in the equestrian event interested 2.34m (24.9%) from 2pm.

Ben Ainslie's sailing blew 1.13m (8.7%) over to BBC Three between 2pm and 8pm, helping the channel to a new record all-day share of 6.6%.

Olympic Breakfast (1.57m/40.7%) and Olympics Tonight (2.19m/18.6%) continued to flourish in the early morning and late-night hours.

EastEnders and Holby City both held up well on BBC Two, boosting 9pm's Midwives: Delivering Under Pressure which mustered 2.49m (10.2%).

Apart from Emmerdale, Love Your Garden was ITV1's best-rated programme with just 2.07m (8.5%), while Secrets of the Shoplifter grabbed 1.87m (7.6%) for Channel 4 at 9pm (+1: 392k/2.1%).

Despite the heavy competition, CSI continued strongly with 1.51m (6.1%) and 142k (0.7%) on +1, and Big Brother had 1.32m (7%) at 10pm.

Predictably, BBC One topped primetime with 28.4%, while BBC Two soared to second place with 11.9%, while ITV1 struggled with 9.8% (+1: 0.5%) in third. BBC Three followed with 6.5%, comfortably ahead of Channel 4 and Channel 5's 4.1% (C4 +1: 0.8%).

Geordie Shore: Chaos in Cancun was the 12th most-watched multichannel broadcast of the day with 369k (2%) on MTV in its usual 10pm slot.

Big Brother Becky Hannon threatens to walk over weight remarks

Big Brother housemate Becky Hannon has threatened to walk off the reality show, following comments from Luke Anderson about her weight.

During this week's family and friends nominations, Becky's sister revealed that Luke A had made a joke about Becky's size.

Luke A had previously commented: "Becky has as much respect for me as she does her BMI."

Becky blasted Luke A for the comments, describing him as "disgusting". She told friend Scott Mason: "I just wanna go, I don't want it to upset my family.

"I hope they haven't read internet stuff saying I'm fat and all that s**t."

Speaking in the Diary Room, she said: "Could you imagine being in the final with Luke A, Deana and Adam? I would rather have gone in week one!

"I think [Luke A] is selfish, devious. I actually think he's a nasty bugger, he's devious.

"I'm going on Friday and I don't want to see him again in my entire life, I literally don't want to know him."

Luke A, Becky, Ashleigh Hughes and Deana Uppal are the four housemates facing possible eviction this week.

Big Brother continues daily on Channel 5.

Amy Childs: 'Big Brother Ashleigh undoing TOWIE's good work for Essex'

Amy Childs has suggested that Big Brother star Ashleigh Hughes is undoing the work of the TOWIE cast to make Essex "look good".

The glamour model, who has appeared in both The Only Way Is Essex and Celebrity Big Brother, reiterated her previous claim that Hughes is giving their home county "a bad name".

"Obviously we've done TOWIE and we're looking good on TOWIE," she told Digital Spy.

"We wanna look good on telly and Ashleigh come about and she was swearing all the time. We had a bad name for Essex anyway and I don't think we need someone like Ashleigh to really make people think more bad of it."

Childs did praise this year's Big Brother for having "a really great house" overall, before going on to name her own Celebrity Big Brother co-stars Jedward as part of her dream cast for its next series, which is expected to begin on Channel 5 on August 15 - two days after the civilian edition ends.

"Jedward was absolutely hilarious," she recalled. "They had loads of character, they was absolutely nuts, but I absolutely loved them.

"I never thought that I would actually get on with Jedward, but they was like my little brothers."

Childs also said during our interview at the Nature Valley Games that she would be up for a return to TOWIE in the future.