It has been a busy week in the Channel 4 commissioning department, with several comedies set to make a return in 2013/14. The line-up consists of Fresh Meat, Friday Night Dinner, The IT Crowd and Cardinal Burns – which has been bumped up from E4 to Channel 4.

Produced by Objective Productions and created by Peep Show”s Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, Fresh Meat will see the return of the group of students now entering a new term. Regular characters will be joined by a new addition, Vod”s (Zawe Ashton) Mexican beefcake lover. Filming is scheduled to take place at the end of this month.

Also entering its third series is Friday Night Dinner, from Big Talk Productions and Popper Pictures. Produced by Nerys Evans, the series will once again take a look at the Goodman Family”s ritual Friday night family meal – with regular interruptions from neighbour Jim (Mark Heap). Filming is slated for this summer.

Returning for a 45-minute one-off a special is The IT Crowd, produced by FremantleMedia”s Retort. Written and directed by Graham Linehan and produced by Richard Boden, the special will feature all four original cast members: Chris O”Dowd, Richard Ayoade, Katherine Parkinson and Matt Berry. Filming will take place in June.

Promoted to a Channel 4 slot and rounding off the commissions is Cardinal Burns, the sketch show from the warped minds of Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns. The Left Bank series – which won a British Comedy Award for best sketch show last year – will see the return of characters Banksy and The Office Flirt, as well as host of new ones.

Further information on the productions mentioned above can be found on Production Intelligence, the online database of advance productions from The Knowledge: