Sky orders new series of Sky Original shorts
August 26, 2022
Sky is supporting the brightest and best in British comedy and extending its search for new voices by investing in seven brand new Sky Original comedy shorts as part of its BAFTA-winning Sky Comedy Shorts programme.
Written by and starring familiar faces such as Rosie Jones, Desiree Burch, Jordan Stephens and plenty of Edinburgh Comedy Award nominees and winners including Jess Fostekew and Jordan Brookes, the seven shorts explore everything from dating anxiety and rural life to pub quizzes and imaginary friends. All the shorts will air on Sky Arts and YouTube in 2023.
Jon Mountague, Director of Comedy, Sky Studios, said: “Sky’s comedy shorts programme is testament to the huge writing and performance talent in the UK and it’s incredibly fulfilling to see past shorts transfer to full series. Our new comedy shorts season will aim to bring new diverse voices to Sky and I’m looking forward to unearthing the next Dreamland or Bloods – and beyond.”
The seven upcoming shorts include:
- Life’s A Pitch: A neurotic, self-destructive copywriter goes to increasingly idiotic extremes to save face and keep up appearances as his work life spirals out of control. Written by Nathan D’Arcy Roberts, starring Jordan Stephens, Aurie Styla, Alex Theo, Shazia Mirza and Ruairi McInerney.
- Diane from Accounts (w/t): A charity worker who has always been hardworking, dependable but ultimately invisible, makes one fateful decision that turns her life upside down. Who knew being bad could be so good! Written by Desiree Burch and Jayshree Patel (based on an idea by Desiree Burch and Grace Ofori-Attah), starring Desiree Burch.
- Past Caring: Three very different women, Rosie, Jen and Maureen, share one similarity: they are all carers. We join these women on one of their few nights off, where they come together for some time away from their duties, which invariably involves Rosie trying, and failing, to flirt with a ‘fit girl’. However, can they ever really separate themselves from being carers? Written by and starring Rosie Jones and Jen Brister. Additional cast includes Maureen Younger alongside Leslie Ash.
- Real Friends: Cassie and Mr Whippy have grown up together; they’ve sat in detention together, suffered puberty together, been bullied together and are soon to be unemployed together. Only snag is, one of them is real and the other is not. And now Mr Whippy, for her own survival, is fighting to remain relevant in Cassie’s life when she meets a … man. This mix of animation and live action comedy is written by and stars Rachel Stubbings and Jess Fostekew. Additional cast includes Daniel Lawrence Taylor, Luke McQueen and Alison Spittle.
- Seen: Dating is never easy but for Jordan, it leaves him a warbling mass of uncertainties. A clueless newborn in the body of a young man. This ‘existential Mr. Bean’ sees Jordan attempt to calm himself, which leads to a spiral of anxiety dreams from visions of cattle slaughter to a flashback of his ex- girlfriend half joking that she can’t imagine him having parents. For Jordan, it’s hard to know which vision is worse. Written by and starring Edinburgh comedy award winner Jordan Brookes. Additional cast includes Nimisha Odedra and Kieran Hodgson.
- Silo: Two very different Londoners, Marcus and Dipesh suddenly find themselves in rural Norfolk, the last place their missing business partner and brother-in-law’s phone was active. Drenched in urban arrogance, they find rural life to be nowhere near as idyllic and time-warped as Countryfile would have you believe. Written by Tom Neenan, Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Sunil Patel. Starring Kiell Smith-Bynoe and Sunil Patel. Additional cast includes Tom Neenan, Sarah Hadland and Mark Heap.
- Six Foot Something: Meet Folake, 6ft 5, fabulous and loving it while playing professional basketball in the states…but less so now, as due to injury, she’s been sent back home to London. Folake finds that without basketball she’s just…tall…and broke. In many ways it’s like being a celebrity without ANY of the perks. Meanwhile her DMs are full of men who have a tall girl fetish and are willing to pay to just be in her presence and some who want a little bit more, so, maybe it’s time to make some money – as long as no one finds out? Written and created by Yemi Oyefuwa.
Previous successes from Sky’s Comedy Shorts programme include Dreamland, which won a BAFTA in 2018 and has since been commissioned into a full series of the same name. Written by Sharon Horgan, Emma Jane Unsworth (showrunner), Gabby Best and Morgan Lloyd and executive produced for Merman by Clelia Mountford, Dreamland stars Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who) and Lily Allen (How to Build a Girl).
Acclaimed original comedy series Bloods, created by Samson Kayo (Famalam) and Nathan Byron, starring Samson Kayo and produced by Rough Cut, also started as a comedy short. Now on its second series, new episodes air from 1st September on Sky Comedy. Samson Kayo was nominated for a BAFTA and won an RTS Award earlier this year for his performance in the series as Maleek. Dreamland and Bloods are both produced in association with Sky Studios.
Sky Comedy Shorts were commissioned by Jon Mountague, Director of Comedy at Sky Studios for Zai Bennett, Managing Director of Content at Sky UK & Ireland. The Commissioning Editor for Sky is Tilusha Ghelani.