Comedy returns to primetime on ITV1

ITV's director of television Simon Shaps today introduced a strong and varied line-up for ITV1's winter season.

The new season includes a return of comedy to prime-time slots on ITV1, with shows like Benidorm, which is set in an "all-inclusive" holiday resort and stars Johnny Vegas and Steve Pemberton, and an adaptation of the best-selling Kate Long novel, The Bad Mothers Handbook, which features Catherine Tate in the lead role.

Shaps said: "Earlier this year we put in place a new team whose challenge it was to make ITV1 a channel that aims high, takes risks and is less predictable. The winter season sees the first of the new team's commissions coming through on screen and I am delighted to say they delivered on that promise right across the board."

He also referred to Sky's acquisition of 17.9% of ITV, joking that: "20% of my speech has been written in Osterley."

Dancing on Ice returns to the channel this season, alongside a new prime-time chat show for Al Murray called Happy Hour. Lisa Turbuck headlines in Bonkers, a cheeky comedy-drama set in a sex-obsessed suburb.

Barry Humphries' creation, Dame Edna, returns to ITV1 for a new series with Shaps saying the format had been "re-invented for the 21st century."

Controller of drama Laura Mackie confirmed a season of "lively" Jane Austen adaptations and strong new drama series.

Six-parter Primeval stars Dougie Henshall as an investigator looking into sightings of pre-historic creatures that appear to have time-travelled to wreak havoc on the present day. Mobile is a conspiracy drama featuring Neil Fitzmaurice and Julie Graham, with a chilling tale set against the Iraq war and the mobile phone industry.

Stephen Fry also returns to ITV for the first time in ten years, starring as Peter Kingdom, a serious lawyer who dealing with his brother's suicide.

From the factual division, ITV has found its answer to the BBC's Who do you think you are? in You don't know you're born?, (the show's working title), where celebrities do jobs that their ancestors once did. The show sees Anna Kirkbridge working on an Irish farm where her ancestors toiled during the Potato Famine, and Alan Davies labouring on a "Victorian" building site.

Fortune also sees Jeffery Archer, Duncan Bannatyne and three other entrepreneurs contribute to a jackpot of £1 million, which will be given away to members of the public who can convince the panel that they deserve a share.

Shaps added: "We're delighted with the range of ideas coming through in the next few months at ITV."