It’s been two years since I took up the Head of Comedy role here at Sky - and what a journey it’s been.

Just last weekend saw Darren Boyd honoured by BAFTA for his fantastic performance on Sky 1’s Spy, this in addition to his British Comedy Award win which came at the end of last year. Also nominated on Sunday was Ruth Jones for her performance in the title role of the show she lovingly created for Sky 1, Stella.

Comedy has certainly struck a chord with our customers, with viewers displaying a huge appetite for laughter. Happily enough, every comedy I commissioned in my first year we will soon see returning, with second series orders across the board.

So now it’s time to begin that journey again.

On Sky 1, we’ve seen shows for the whole household, Sky Living is female-skewed and Sky Arts has the much celebrated Playhouse season and now it’s time to unveil a very different flavour of comedy for Sky Atlantic. We are offering our best comic authors a destination where they can invent, experiment and misbehave.

Continuing our pledge to raise investment in home-grown programming to £600m by 2014, I am delighted that today we’ve unveiled a raft of original beautifully crafted comedies that will appeal to the discerning Sky Atlantic viewer.

The man, the legend, Norwich’s very own Alan Partridge is back. Steve Coogan will be bringing his genius comic creation to Sky Atlantic for two new exclusive specials. In Places of My Life, Alan will take us on a journey around his beloved Norwich and in a special edition of Open Books with Martyn Bryce he’ll talk about the impact of the success of his autobiography. We’ll also be showing a special edition of his series Mid Morning Matters and a documentary following Steve’s tour in Australia.

Julia Davis has also penned and stars in a wonderful new series called Hunderby. Set in the 19th century England, it's a darkly comic series about the plight of a young woman entering a very twisted, depraved household. It also stars anyone who's name is Alex - Roach, Armstrong and McQueen. And it manages to do that very difficult thing of being both beautiful AND funny. Much like Julia Davis.

Then we have Kathy Burke. This has been a hugely rewarding process of seeing a series grow out of Kathy's Little Cracker she made for Sky 1 in my first year of the job. We asked her to make more and thank god she said yes - it's called Walking and Talking. Described by Kathy as her "love letter to books, 70s television, music and friends", she invites us to join her teenage self and her mate Mary as she walks around the streets of Islington trying to escape the clutches of Jimmy the Jew, played by Jerry Sadowitz.

Meanwhile, we also welcome our American friends Ronna & Beverly, with a new British chat show where they affectionately roast, advise and verbally torture some of our best loved stars and Adam Buxton’s Bug - a music video extravaganza that celebrates the most thought-proving and weird music videos in the world which provoke the online chatter sifted through and shared brilliantly by Adam.

Jack Dee also is coming to the channel, with a new show called Don't Sit In The Front Row, where members of the audience are comedically probed for laughs by a line up of top stand ups.

Finally, we’ve also announced today that a new series we're currently calling Comedy Republic. Produced by Baby Cow it will be all about unearthing the next generation of comic characters. Our series of Little Crackers has proved such a successful starting point for future shows that we wanted to do the same thing with writer performers and character comics. Filmed this autumn, our newbies will be joined by some more familiar names, to be confirmed.

I am glad that Sky Atlantic exists as a vital place to try out the new which is the lifeblood of a genre like comedy, where funny is in the thing we don't yet know.

Along with Russell Brand’s Brand X and Armando Ianucci's unbelievably brilliant VEEP, set in the office of a fictional US Vice-President, it all adds up to a really strong season of comedy on Sky Atlantic, showcasing the talents of some of the biggest names in British comedy.