NORTH-East funny men Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer will hit the nation's television screens in the New Year with a sitcom about two daft social club bouncers.

The pair, who front hit TV show Shooting Stars, are busy filming the six-part comedy which has been given the working title Catterick.

It sees the development of the characters Carl and Chris who were introduced in their last sketch series Bang Bang: It's Reeves and Mortimer.

Vic, who grew up in Darlington, and Middlesbrough-born Bob play brothers who have not seen each other for 15 years.

They are reunited when Carl comes out of the Army and they decide to track down his long lost son, last seen in Catterick, North Yorkshire.

The comedy follows the first three years of the brothers meeting up again.

Though part of the sitcom focuses on the region, CHX Productions, which is making the series for the BBC, said last night that none of the scenes had been filmed in North Yorkshire.

A spokeswoman said: "There is not a big budget so we could not go up there. It's mainly filmed around the M25."

The North-East's newspaper of the year does make an appearance, though - one of the characters can be seen catching up on the latest news in The Northern Echo.

Filming is due to end mid-November and digital channel BBC3 is hoping to screen the sitcom early next year. Terrestrial viewers will be able to catch the comedy on BBC2 later.

The cast also includes Matt Lucas, Tim Healy, and the League of Gentlemen's Reece Shearsmith.