Showtime has reaffirmed its commitment to comedy with a British accent, renewing Tracey Ullman's new series and picking up a project from Marc Wootton.

The premium cable network announced Friday (May 2) that "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union" will return for a second seven-episode season premiering in 2009.

The first season of "State of the Union," in which Ullman plays her usual tapestry of real and fictional characters, premiered in late March and drew 776,000 viewers for its first two episodes.

The Marc Wootton Project will be a six-episode alternative comedy series driven by character-driven sketches and will also premiere in 2009. The exact format and concept of the series has yet to be determined, but British audiences know Wootton for his comedy specials and for his starring role in the series "High Spirits with Shirley Ghostman."

"I won't hold it against them that both are from the U.K.," jokes Showtime Entertainment President Robert Greenblatt, "but Tracey Ullman is the veteran genius who continues to impress us with her versatility, while Marc Wootton is the up-and-comer who will surprise our audience with his own unique voice. This is an embarrassment of riches for us in the comedy department."

On the comedy front, Showtime has the fourth season of "Weeds" and the series premiere of the U.K. transplant "Secret Diary of a Call Girl" set for a June 16 launch. The Golden Globe-winning "Californication" returns in the fall and Showtime is waiting to weight the fates of high profile pilots "The United States of Tara" and an untitled Edie Falco comedy.