The long awaited return of the Fast Show is just hours away with the iconic sketch show's online début to take place on the Fosters Funny website, the home of the triumphant comeback of Alan Partridge at the end of last year.

And to celebrate the online editions, social networkers who help to spread the word quickly, will be rewarded with bonus material.

Using the Fast Share tool, developed by agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine, within an hour of each webisode going live will unlock a wealth of extra footage including an exclusive backstage area, bloopers, cast interviews and additional sketches.

Richard Lloyd of Lean Mean Fighting Machine said: "There are more things to read, watch and listen to on the web than ever before. Indeed, statistics show that all the content uploaded to YouTube would take over eight years to watch.

"And even the most popular links will receive over half their total clicks in the first three hours after posting. We wanted to do something genuinely creative to make sure the new Fast Show episodes with Foster’s reach the biggest audience possible, as quickly as possible."

In total there will be 12 new episodes on the site, each 7 minutes long. Written and directed by Fast Show co-creators Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson, a number of the key players from the original show are back including Caroline Aherne, Arabella Weir, Simon Day and John Thompson.

The Fast Show series will broadcast for the first time at 1pm UK time today (Thursday 10 November). You can catch it at www.fostersfunny.co.uk.