Katherine Ryan is set to front a brand new televisual take on the classic card game Top Trumps. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) UK & Ireland has today announced a commissioning slate packed full of even-more comedy entertainment for its new-look, free-to-air channel TLC.
The announcement follows the premiere of TLC’s brand-new comedy format Unacceptable, hosted by Ed Gamble, which launched earlier this month and will return for series 2 later this year.
Top Trumps: The Comedy Pack sees one of the nation's favourite card games explode onto the studio floor. Produced by TalkbackThames with Naked, the series will be hosted by Katherine Ryan and see an all-star cast of comedians, led by team captains Joel Dommett and Jon Richardson, go head-to-head in this first comedy take on the much-loved game - battling through a mix of classic card face-offs, live studio challenges and bluffing games. The series comes to TLC early next year.
On Top Trumps: The Comedy Pack (w/t), Katherine Ryan said: “Everyone knows Top Trumps, but no one has ever played it quite like this. We’re taking this iconic game and supersizing it into something bigger, louder and much funnier. And with Jon and Joel captaining rival teams, chaos is pretty much guaranteed."
Joel Dommett said: “Top Trumps and me have a lot in common - it’s fun, simple and older than you think. I used to get very excited playing Top Trumps back in the day, and now I get to play it on the telly with two famously un-excitable comedians Kathrine Ryan and Jon Richardson. It’s really gonna be a blast.”
Jon Richardson said: “For too long the world has been led to believe that there are no good Trumps, so I'm delighted to be on a show that celebrates the very best of them. I'm a sucker for a game with clear rules and a winner at the end so Top Trumps has always made sense to me. Let's see whether careful planning can beat sheer enthusiasm once and for all.”
Also hot on the heels of the Mock the Week: Summer Specials, and ahead of series 2 which starts on 13 September, fans can look forward to plenty more Mock the Week in 2027, as TLC has greenlit series 3, 4 and 5 for the channel. Produced by Angst productions, this lengthy order will see host Dara Ó Briain back alongside series regular Rhys James and an array of top comedy talent. The next series will land on TLC in February, followed by a Summer and Autumn series - delivering regular doses of news-led satire, topical fun and cheeky innuendo.
Graham Lafferty, SVP Content Strategy & Networks, UK&I, Warner Bros. Discovery said: “Six months on from TLC’s successful launch as a free-to-air, broad entertainment channel, it’s hugely exciting to bring another brand-new original format to the schedule in Top Trumps: The Comedy Pack (w/t). We are thrilled to have the brilliantly funny Katherine Ryan at the helm, no stranger to TLC after appearances on Mock the Week and Unacceptable, along with an exceptional comedy pairing in Joel Dommett and Jon Richardson. Our take on Top Trumps is perfectly placed for TLC’s growing UK comedy line-up, alongside Mock the Week – which we are delighted to secure for a further three series with Dara Ó Briain satirically steering us through the 2027 news agenda – and a second series of Unacceptable hosted by the hilarious Ed Gamble."
