Phone hacking scandal gets TV comedy treatment

Drop The Dead Donkey writer Guy Jenkin is creating a TV comedy about newspaper phone hacking for Channel 4.

The hour-long programme will take a "satirical swipe" at the scandal when it is screened later this year.

The show, with the working title Hacks, is set in a fictional paper where staff indulge in phone hacking, blagging and "pinging" to get a story by any means necessary.

It follows the scandal which brought about the closure of the News Of The World and led to the departure of senior News International executives as well as top Scotland Yard figures.

Jenkin, the co-creator of TV newsroom sitcom Drop The Dead Donkey, is currently working on the script. He said: "We hope to be faster and funnier than all the inquiries so far."

Shane Allen, Channel 4's head of comedy who commissioned the show, said: "We are very excited about Hacks and it's great that Channel 4 can be so quick off the mark to shine a satirical light on what's been happening in the media over the last few months."