An updated statement has been issued regarding the origins of the spoof African dictator character fronting E4 TV pilot The Colonel Banjoko Show, to be played by Samson Kayo. Comedian Benjamin Bankole Bello has complained that he has been doing a similar-sounding character called President Obonjo on the stand-up circuit for a decade and has had considerable support from fellow comedians including Dane Baptiste and Kae Kurd.

A spokesperson from  BBC Studios, who are producing the pilot for E4 said: "Colonel Banjoko is an original character, created by BBC Studios for Samson Kayo and we are delighted he is taking on the role. It was inspired by a general in a recent coup who asked everyone to remain calm on the TV and the BBC Studios Comedy team approached Samson with the idea. Viewers will get the opportunity to see it for themselves if the pilot is taken to series.”

According to the press information Colonel Banjoko is the erstwhile military dictator of the small African nation of Tanzangola. After a devastating civil war, entirely of his own making, the Colonel was persuaded to take an ‘extended Sabbatical’ by his devoted subjects. He fled to London in the dead of night, taking only what he could carry... and the remainder of the country’s health budget, and is now living out his dream of presenting his own late-night entertainment show complete with celebrity guests, music, games and summary executions.

With his only previous TV experience being lengthy diatribes on Tanzangola’s state-owned news Channel, Colonel Banjoko is the perfect person to host an E4 entertainment show. He is bombastic, charming, utterly self-obsessed and highly dangerous and his celebrity guests are kept on their toes by his unique and unpredictable style of interrogation. In many ways he is a modern-day Mrs Merton, only armed to the teeth and with a pending trial for war crimes at The Hague. (Prod co - BBC Studios).