BBC News and Current Affairs has commissioned a second series of No Such Thing As The News.The series will return to BBC2 from October 12.

NSTATN reports not (or not necessarily) on the most important stories of the week, only on the most interesting. The result is 30 minutes packed with an astonishing amount of topical information. Not merely highly informative, NSTATN is also a welcome tonic – an optimistic and off-beat take on the wider world. 

Viewers of the first series embraced this pared-down, austerity television as a triumph of content over form, with the programme attracting a good audience for that time on Friday nights on BBC Two, and it was also a catch-up hit with half of the total audience watching the programme after broadcast including via BBC iPlayer. 

Written and presented by four young QI researchers in a comedy club in Greenwich London, the budget is so tiny that (as one comment on Twitter noted) it ‘looks like a hostage video’. But, while it’s undeniably cheap, its other point of difference is that it’s cheerful. Who would ever have thought the news could be this much fun? 

No Such Thing As The News is current events you can watch for pleasure rather than as a fearful duty. Featuring Dan Schreiber, Anna Ptaszynski, Andrew Hunter Murray and James Harkin, it is an independent production by QITV for BBC News and Current Affairs, produced by John Lloyd, the man behind The News Quiz, Not The Nine O’Clock News,Blackadder, Spitting Image and QI. 

The second series will run from October 12 for eight Wednesdays at 11.15pm after Newsnight. And this time round special bonus material will be streamed live on the BBC News Facebook page each week, offering a glimpse of behind-the-scenes and a chance for fans to get involved.