The good news about producing a year-end TV special is they often become annual commissions.

To wit: Radio-Canada’s Bye Bye, a year-end laugher renowned for its scandalous comedy, or the former Royal Canadian Air Farce‘s New Year’s Eve special on the CBC’s English language network.

Indie producer Cineflix Productions thinks it may have a future look-back TV franchise on its hands after British broadcaster ITV1 commissioned The Comedy Annual 2010.

The one-hour special, to air December 22, will be produced by Cineflix Productions and ITV Studios, and will feature top Brit comics pronouncing on the most memorable moments of 2010.

Rob Carey, Cineflix Productions’ creative director, welcomed the high profile commission from ITV1.

“It will be the best possible way for viewers to sit back together, forget the cold, the transport chaos, budget cuts and enjoy a really good laugh,” he said of the program’s format of recalling moments that made viewers laugh during the prior 12 months.

The British comedy special is also evidence of Cineflix’s ever-longer tentacles in global TV production.

The Canadian producer, best known for its North American factual series made in the field like American Pickers and Canadian Pickers, in Britain has increasingly taken to the studio to make popular entertainment shows that can be sold as formats into the U.S. and other foreign markets.

The Comedy Annual 2010 was ordered by ITV’s commissioner of entertainment Claire Zolkwer.

The executive producers are Lee Connolly and Saurabh Kakkar for ITV Studios and Guy Freeman for Cineflix.