Big Talk Studios and That Mitchell & Webb Company have launched the official global YouTube destination for comic duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The channel will “ultimately bring together a definitive archive of the duo’s most celebrated comedy work alongside newly created exclusive original content”.
The official channel, whose content is currently not available in the UK and Ireland because of rights windowing, will feature a curated rollout of classic sketches, fan favourites and long-form material spanning Mitchell and Webb’s body of work. Launching initially with material from the Channel 4 show Mitchell and Webb Are Not Helping (pictured), the channel will expand with multiple weekly drops designed to serve international audiences discovering the pair’s work for the first time.
Alongside the Not Helping sketches and full episodes, the channel will debut a new original format: Mitchell & Webb Talk About Some Sketches in a Pretend Room, in which David Mitchell and Robert Webb revisit, dissect and discuss their recent sketch series. Produced by Gareth Edwards, their long-standing collaborator, Pretend Room will explore “how new sketches like Sweary Aussies, Bad Therapist and Middle-Aged Man Island came into being, alongside diversions into geopolitics, a washing machine with a broken heart, and why heaven might be full of dead wasps”.
Initially targeted at a global audience, Not Helping will continue to stream locally in the UK and Ireland (Channel 4) and Australia (HBO Max), while the latest series and newly created original material will now be made available globally.
The launch reflects a broader strategy to build a global digital home for Mitchell and Webb’s comedy catalogue, combining archive exploitation, original creator-led content and audience engagement across YouTube and social platforms.
Big Talk’s Kenton Allen said: “Mitchell and Webb have created some of the most intelligent, distinctive and endlessly rewatchable comedy of the modern era. What’s exciting about this launch is that it allows us to build a global digital home for Mitchell & Webb Are Not Helping fans outside the UK whilst also launching their Pretend Room chats for audiences discovering them for the first time. Long before streamers and social platforms transformed audience behaviour, Mitchell and Webb were creating sketches that people wanted to quote, share and rediscover repeatedly. The global demand for this material is potentially enormous so our ambition with this channel is to create the definitive destination for one of Britain’s greatest comedy double acts.”
Robert Webb added: “I’ve always said that you can’t beat a damn good official global destination and I’m so thrilled to have one of my own. This is a global destination with legs. And maybe heart. Certainly spleen and maybe one day a working liver. But mainly this is a place where we try to be funny and we hope you like it.”
David Mitchell says: “I have spoken movingly on multiple occasions about how the internet is a huge mistake for humanity so this is obviously all extremely depressing for me and I’d be grateful for some privacy at this difficult time.”
That Mitchell & Webb Company and Big Talk Studios partnered with WME Creator Labs on the development, launch and ongoing management of the channel.
