A comedian bringing legal action against a production company founded by Steve Coogan has claimed producers “obviously copied” elements of a sitcom he created, the High Court has heard.
However, lawyers for Baby Cow Productions deny copying the content of Shambles and said there are “no substantial similarities between the two shows that would lead one, in context, to believe one has been copied from the other”. The barrister said that though the plotlines of two episodes, LATMC’s Don’t Go In There and Shambles’ High Spirits, were “not identical” they were “clearly based on the same premise – a false belief that the club is haunted”.
He continued: “LATMC is a mockumentary, not a sitcom, and one of its key features is that it presents substantial passages of actual stand-up, which Shambles does not.”