Sky has ordered a slate a new and returning comedies starring Idris Elba, David Walliams and Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins.
A range of seven new comedy shorts will also join the line-up.
Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc star in their first scripted comedy, Hitmen (working title).
Hitmen is a new six-part original comedy, produced by Tiger Aspect, about two best friends trying to make their way in the world with only each other to rely on. They also just happen to kill people for a living.
Having stumbled into a career in contract killing, misfits Fran and Jamie (Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc) are not your typical killers for hire. Working out of their scruffy van, each episode follows the hapless duo as they try to carry out their latest hit, inevitably derailed by incompetence, bickering, and inane antics. As each hit goes south, the (anti)heroes are thrown into one bizarre misadventure after another, each full of oddball characters and unexpected dilemmas.
Produced by Tiger Aspect, Hitmen is written by Joe Parham and Joe Markham and will premiere on Sky One in 2019. The producer will be Arnold Widdowson and the executive producers will be Myfanwy Moore and Siobhan Bachman.
David Walliams, Samantha Bond and Johnny Vegas star in The Queen and I, a new original comedy based on the novel by the late Sue Townsend and produced by King Bert Productions.
In the 90-minute special, the People’s Republican Party is elected to power and the monarchy is dismantled by the popular Prime Minister Jack Barker, played by David Walliams. The show follows the Royal Family, with Samantha Bond playing the dethroned Queen, as they are evicted from Buckingham Palace and forced to lead normal lives as citizens of a republic. The Queen and I began filming last week, with Walliams and Bond being joined by a cast including Amanda Abbington, Francis Barber and Johnny Vegas.
The Queen and I is written by Stephen Russell, directed by Dan Zeff and produced by Margot Gavan Duffy. Executive producers are Jo Sargent and David Walliams for King Bert Productions.
Idris Elba and Bill Bailey will return for a second series of In The Long Run. Filming for the second series is scheduled for 2019, and will continue to follow the adventures of Walter, Agnes, Valentine and their neighbours Bagpipes and Kirsty. The series, created and produced by Idris Elba of Green Door Pictures and produced with Gina Carter of Sprout Pictures, is loosely based on Elba’s own childhood and explores life growing up on an estate in 1980s London.
Sky will also release a range of seven comedy shorts this month, with talent including Alex Brooker, Lee Ridley (aka Lost Voice Guy), Jonny Pelham, Kris Marshall, Samson Kayo, Susan Wokoma, and Sindhu Vee.
Staff Reporter
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