Johnny Vegas has called for more "brilliant, self-contained pieces" on television - and less of a focus on "returning audiences".
Vegas stars in one-off comedy Brilliantman! - airing tonight at 9pm on Sky Arts.
"I mourn the bygone days of Play for Today and these self-contained pieces, and the fact that within TV now it's all about returning audiences," the comic told DS.
"It's a real dumbing down or a presumption of the audience. It's almost a broadcast-induced attention deficit syndrome - where they don't trust that people can watch something that is self-contained for 30 minutes.
"And it's a shame that everything is about competing with something in the same time-slot on another channel, rather than putting something on for its creative and artistic validity."
Vegas previously worked with Sky Arts on the Playhouse Presents episode 'Ragged' - based on the early life of actor Ricky Tomlinson.
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"I think when we did 'Ragged', there were people who couldn't believe it was on Sky and wasn't on somewhere like the BBC; that they wouldn't be jumping to produce a piece like that about Ricky."
Brilliantman! is a silent comedy - written by and co-starring Kevin Eldon - and Vegas insisted that there's still a place for the format in 2015.
"I think it's brilliant having this platform to investigate that and play with that format, so kudos to Sky Arts for going ahead with a project like this," he said.
"There's so much concern about tapping into huge viewing figures now that less and less experimental pieces like this get made."
Vegas plays unpleasant landlady Mrs Wardle in Brilliantman!, which stars Eldon as Ian Hedge - a council worker who becomes an unlikely superhero.
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