Jack Whitehall, the man who somehow turned mild social discomfort and being told off by his dad into an international comedy career, has now entered his business era. But before you picture him in a pinstripe suit growling “I’m out” across a mahogany table — relax. This is not Dragon’s Den as we know it. This is, apparently, the cool version.

And yes, it’s just as chaotic-good as it sounds.

Dragon’s Den, But Make It Cultural

Whitehall has co-launched The Artists Collective, an investment fund that swaps stern boardrooms for social feeds, and pitch decks for cultural relevance. Joining him are some of the UK’s most recognisable creative figures, including Maya Jama, Roman Kemp, actor Daniel Kaluuya and singer Tom Grennan — a lineup that feels less “corporate investment panel” and more “festival backstage area”.

The premise is simple: find early-stage businesses with real potential, invest between £50,000 and £300,000, and then do something traditional investors can’t — actually make people care. The Collective uses its combined social reach to promote the businesses it backs, effectively turning celebrity influence into a growth strategy.

Less Elevator Pitch, More TikTok Pitch

This isn’t about rehearsing a flawless three-minute speech in front of five silent judges. Instead, the Collective actively looks for companies emerging through TikTok and other social platforms, where audience connection matters as much as margins.

In other words, if your startup looks good on camera, tells a strong story, and doesn’t make Jack Whitehall visibly uncomfortable, you’re already ahead.

One of the first companies backed by the group is Seat Unique, a platform focused on premium live-event hospitality — a neat match for a fund rooted in entertainment, access, and experiences rather than spreadsheets and stress.

Is Jack Whitehall a Serious Investor?

Define “serious”.

Whitehall has never pretended to be a business mogul, and that’s exactly why this works. The Collective isn’t trying to out-intimidate traditional venture capital — it’s sidestepping it entirely. Where Dragon’s Den thrives on tension and rejection, this model leans into visibility, personality, and cultural timing.

It’s entrepreneurship for the attention economy: funding meets fandom.

Final Verdict

This “cool Dragon’s Den” might not replace traditional investment shows — but it doesn’t want to. It’s a reminder that in 2026, success isn’t just about valuation charts and hard questions. Sometimes it’s about whether your product can survive a TikTok comment section and still come out trending.

If nothing else, it’s reassuring to know that somewhere out there, Jack Whitehall is helping startups grow — and probably making at least one awkward joke while doing it.

The delightfully awkward British comedy-thriller Black Ops is officially back for its second series — and this time the punchline is bureaucracy. Yes, the same show that saw two under-qualified Police Community Support Officers bumble their way through criminal infiltration is now living out every civil servant’s dream: they’ve been promoted… into MI5.

Created by BAFTA-winning actor and writer Gbemisola Ikumelo, who also stars as Dom, alongside co-creator Akemnji Ndifornyen, Black Ops debuted on BBC One in 2023 and quickly earned critical acclaim for its sharp satire, warm performances, and refusal to take the spy genre even remotely seriously.

From Street Patrol to Spy Paperwork

In Series 1, Dom and her relentlessly upbeat partner Kay (played by Hammed Animashaun) tried to make a difference as PCSOs, only to stumble — largely by accident — into undercover chaos. Their success was never about competence; it was about optimism, luck, and being just sincere enough to survive the mess.

Series 2 escalates that joke beautifully. Dom and Kay now find themselves officially employed by MI5 — not as elite operatives, but as people who appear to have wandered into the building and been handed lanyards. Instead of glamorous missions, they’re faced with admin tasks, intelligence jargon, and the creeping realisation that espionage involves far more filing than firearms.

Before long, though, the pair are dragged into an actual intelligence operation involving a confident, suspiciously smooth spy named Steve (played by Ed Speleers), carnival chaos, and consequences they are wildly unprepared for.

Why It’s Still Hilarious (and Very, Very British)

What Black Ops does best is puncture the mythology of spy culture. This is not martinis and Aston Martins — it’s awkward meetings, unclear instructions, and people pretending they know what acronyms mean.

The humour is distinctly British: dry, absurd, and rooted in social observation. Dom and Kay aren’t idiots; they’re simply navigating systems that were never designed for them. That tension — between institutional seriousness and personal chaos — is where the show thrives.

The industry noticed too. The first series won major awards, including Best Comedy Programme at the Broadcast Awards, with Ikumelo receiving widespread praise for her performance and writing.

Familiar Faces, New Headaches

Alongside the returning leads, Series 2 features a strong supporting cast, including Nigel Havers, Annette Badland, Cathy Tyson, and Tom Stourton — many of whom bring an extra layer of authority that Dom and Kay cheerfully undermine.

Ed Speleers’ Steve, meanwhile, embodies everything our heroes are not: confident, competent, and deeply suspicious of anyone who doesn’t know where the stationery cupboard is.

MI5: Real Agency, Very Unreal Expectations

MI5, of course, is the UK’s real domestic intelligence service, tasked with national security. In reality, it’s unlikely staffed by people who accidentally compromise operations while trying to be helpful — but fiction has recently found rich comedy and drama in showing intelligence work as messy, bureaucratic, and deeply human.

In that sense, Black Ops sits comfortably alongside the growing trend of British spy stories that focus less on glamour and more on dysfunction — only here, the dysfunction is played entirely for laughs.

Picture it: a dusty archive room at the University of York, amid forgotten letters and Victorian shopping lists… and nestled between them, a Steptoe and Son Christmas script nobody knew existed. Yes, archivists at the Borthwick Institute for Archives have recently uncovered a missing festive script written for Christmas 1963, starring Harold and Albert Steptoe — but never filmed.

This is the kind of British comedy archaeology that sends sitcom fans weak at the knees. The script was written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson at the height of Steptoe and Son’s popularity, when the series was pulling in audiences of over 28 million viewers and dominating early-1960s television schedules.

A Christmas Treat for Misery Lovers

Don’t expect mistletoe, miracles or emotional reconciliation. This was Steptoe and Son, after all. According to archive notes, the unproduced Christmas storyline sees Harold attempting to host a respectable festive gathering for his socially ambitious friends, while Albert grumbles relentlessly about the season. The plot reaches peak Steptoe bleakness when both men wake up on Christmas morning suffering from chicken pox, instantly ruining any hope of celebration.

One archivist involved in the discovery described the script as a perfect snapshot of British Christmas traditions: the rows, the disappointment, the forced cheer, and the grinding reality of spending the holidays with family you cannot escape. In other words — comedy gold.

Why Was It Lost?

So why was this Christmas special never made? The explanation is gloriously mundane. At the time, Galton and Simpson were juggling an intense workload, having just completed a live sketch for the Royal Variety Performance while also preparing the next series of Steptoe and Son. The festive script was simply shelved, forgotten as production schedules moved on.

Interestingly, elements of the abandoned storyline later resurfaced a decade later in the 1973 Christmas episode, in which Harold attempts to flee Christmas altogether, only to be emotionally blackmailed into returning home by Albert. Even when lost, Steptoe ideas had a habit of refusing to stay buried.

The Legacy of the Steptoes

Steptoe and Son ran throughout the 1960s and early 1970s and starred Wilfrid Brambell as the cantankerous Albert and Harry H. Corbett as his perpetually frustrated son Harold. The show’s blend of social realism, class tension and relentless bickering reshaped British sitcom writing and paved the way for future classics that dared to mix laughs with discomfort.

Galton and Simpson themselves were already legends by the time Steptoe aired, having met years earlier as patients in a tuberculosis ward. Their sharp, character-driven writing ensured that even an unmade Christmas episode could still resonate more than half a century later.

Could We Ever See It Performed?

There’s hope yet. In the past, previously lost Steptoe and Son sketches — including a Christmas piece from 1962 — have been performed live on stage with approval from the writers’ estates. With renewed interest in archive television and classic comedy, it’s not impossible that this long-lost Christmas script could one day receive a festive resurrection.

Until then, it remains a beautifully bleak reminder of a time when Christmas television didn’t need snow machines or sentimentality — just two men in a scrapyard, ill, arguing, and absolutely incapable of joy. Which, frankly, feels very on brand.

Fans of the gloriously inappropriate Peep Show are collectively wondering if they’ve accidentally swallowed a tab of acid after news broke that Super Hans — the flat-sharing, crack-loving, total legend of chaos — is releasing his memoir. And no, this isn’t the usual tongue-in-cheek promo gag: the book, titled Moreish: My Mad Autobiography, is real and is scheduled for publication on 27 August 2026.

The book will be published by Mudlark, an imprint of HarperCollins, and yes — the title is exactly as subtle as you’d expect.

A Memoir Only Hans Could Write

Moreish promises to be a feral, unfiltered tour through the life and “philosophy” of Super Hans. According to the official description released to comedy press, the memoir traces his adventures from Croydon to the former Eastern Bloc and back again, taking in illegal DJ gigs, chemical enlightenment, disastrous travel experiences, funerals, festivals, bans from countries, mysterious twins, and at least one moped-based scheme that almost certainly shouldn’t have happened.

The tone is described as part travel diary, part unreliable autobiography, part chaotic manifesto — effectively a written extension of Hans’ ability to sound profound while saying something utterly unhinged. Comedy outlets have described it as both anarchic and strangely heartfelt, which feels alarmingly on brand.

But Who’s Really Behind the Book?

While the memoir is written entirely in character as Super Hans, the real author is Matt King, the actor and comedian who portrayed Hans across all nine series of Peep Show between 2003 and 2015.

King, born in Watford in 1968, has had a wide-ranging career outside the show, including stand-up, voice acting, DJing, and appearances in film, television, and video games. Despite his character’s cultural dominance, King has previously admitted in interviews that he has never watched Peep Show in full, largely because he dislikes watching himself on screen — a fact that somehow makes this project even more surreal.

He has also spoken publicly about the double-edged sword of playing such an iconic character: adored by fans, endlessly quoted in the street, and impossible to escape. Writing Moreish appears to be a deliberate, knowing lean-in — reclaiming the character on his own terms.

Why This Matters (Yes, Really)

This isn’t just a novelty cash-in. Comedy industry coverage suggests Moreish is being treated as a fully fledged comedic work — a fictional autobiography that expands the Peep Show universe without pretending it’s anything other than nonsense filtered through a damaged but charismatic mind.

Its announcement also lands during a renewed wave of Peep Show nostalgia, following recent cast reunions and renewed public affection for the show’s uniquely British brand of misery-comedy. For fans, it’s a chance to spend more time with one of the sitcom’s most anarchic figures — without needing Jeremy to ruin everything.

Whether Moreish becomes a cult comedy classic or simply the most convincing argument ever made for not writing things down after 3 a.m. remains to be seen. Either way, it’s unmistakably Super Hans.

This is not a drill, Peckham fans. News has emerged that never-before-seen footage from Only Fools and Horses is finally set to be broadcast, sending shockwaves of excitement through living rooms, pubs, and anyone who still owns a sheepskin coat.

As part of celebrations marking 45 years since the sitcom first aired, a brand-new documentary will lift the curtain on material that has sat untouched in the BBC archives for decades. Yes, actual unseen Del Boy and Rodney content — not just another repeat you swear you’ve already watched 37 times.

What Is Only Fools And Horses: The Lost Archive?

The documentary, titled Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive, is scheduled to air on U&GOLD in 2026 and promises to deliver the holy grail for fans: 66 previously unseen clips and deleted scenes pulled from classic episodes.

These aren’t half-finished sketches or camera tests either. The footage includes fully filmed scenes that were cut for timing, pacing, or episode length — decisions made long before anyone imagined fans would still be quoting Del Boy into the 21st century.

Among the rediscovered material are scenes from legendary episodes such as:

• The Jolly Boys’ Outing

• Mother Nature’s Son

• Time on Our Hands

• He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Uncle

There’s even an entire unseen nightclub opening scene featuring Del and Rodney that was removed from Class of ’62and effectively vanished… until now.

Blooper Reels, Guest Stars and Fresh Interviews

The archive doesn’t stop at deleted scenes. Viewers will also be treated to blooper footage, including multiple retakes involving Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, who appeared as himself in the 1991 Christmas special Miami Twice. Apparently, perfection took a few goes — and Del and Rodney were along for the ride.

Adding emotional weight to the laughs are newly recorded interviews with surviving cast members, including Sir David Jason, Tessa Peake-Jones, Gwyneth Strong and Sue Holderness. They reflect on the rediscovered footage and on the extraordinary legacy of a show that somehow managed to be both wildly silly and deeply heartfelt.

Sir David Jason has spoken about how revisiting the material brought back just how special the series was — not only to those who made it, but to generations of viewers who grew up with the Trotters as part of the family.

Why This Matters (And Why Fans Are Losing Their Minds)

Only Fools and Horses ran from 1981 to 2003, becoming one of the most successful British sitcoms of all time, regularly pulling in record-breaking Christmas Day audiences and cementing its place in TV history.

What makes The Lost Archive so exciting is that it offers something genuinely new from a show many assumed had given us everything it possibly could. This isn’t nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake — it’s a rare second helping from a series that defined British comedy.

Final Word: This Time Next Year…

An exact broadcast date is still to be confirmed, but when Only Fools and Horses: The Lost Archive finally lands, it promises laughs, surprises and more than a few emotional moments.

So dust off the VHS quotes, warm up your best “This time next year…” impression, and get ready to return to Peckham — because Del and Rodney have one more deal left in them yet.

Lovely. Jubbly.