Comedian Harry Deansway is suing Steve Coogan’s production company Baby Cow over a comedy series called ‘Live at the Moth Club’, which he claims is ripping off his YouTube show ‘Shambles’.
In his file, Deansway, whose real name is Joshua Rinkoff, describes “Shambles” as a sitcom “centered around a live comedy night” in a run-down club struggling to make ends meet. The show mixes fact and fiction by combining a behind-the-scenes club sitcom with real comedy performances in front of a live audience.
“Shambles”, featuring performances by well-known comedians including Aisling Bea and Dan Schreiber, was released on YouTube in 2013 as a six-part series, followed by a second season in 2015.
Deansway has accused Baby Cow of copying the series with a show called “Live at the Moth Club”, which aired on UKTV last December. According to the comedian, “Live at the Moth Club,” which stars Jamie Demetriou, Natasha Demetriou, and Phil Wang, among others, bears a number of similarities to “Shambles,” including its setting, format, and characters, such as a chaotic promoter.
His legal filing also lists a number of jokes he claims were scammed, including one about the lights in the club not working and another where an intern writes material for one of the comedians.
Deansway says in the filing that he is familiar with Baby Cow’s head of development, Rupert Majendie, who is credited as the creator and executive producer of “Live at the Moth Club,” and once presented him with an “embryonic” version of “Shambles.” pitched when Majendie worked at the BBC.
That’s what a source close to Baby Cow said Variety that while the parties’ lawyers are in communication, the production company considers the similarities between the two shows to be “fairly light”, compared to the closeness of soap operas such as “Coronation Street” and “Eastenders”.
Baby Cow was founded in 1999 by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal. Coogan remained a shareholder after BBC Studios took a majority stake in the company in 2016.
That says a spokesman for the production company Variety: “We strongly refute this claim, which has no legal value.”