The Many Faces of Reece Shearsmith

Channel 4 has commissioned a new comedy pilot featuring three of Britain’s leading comic actresses. Bad Sugar will star Olivia Colman, Julia Davis and Sharon Horgan. The trio also co-conceived the idea for the show. The half-hour pilot centres on a dysfunctional, wealthy mining dynasty, with an ailing patriarch and some greedy siblings. The show, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions, is described as ‘a peculiarly British take on telenovela style melodramas, played for laughs’. Bad Sugar has been written by Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong, the award-winning writers behindThe Old Guys and hit Channel 4 comedies Peep Show and Fresh Meat, and will be brought to the screen by Inbetweeners director Ben Palmer. The programme will also feature Peter Serafinowicz, Reece Shearsmith and Ideal actor David Bradley. Executive Producer Sophie Clarke-Jervoise said: “The process of bringing together such gigantic talent, both on and off screen, has been tremendously exciting. Bad Sugar is a darkly comic world where anything can happen, and does!” Writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong add: “We’ve always wanted to write a show with poisonings, death threats, extreme psychological pain and big hair. With the help of the amazing cast we’re hoping it might be what everyone in UK television has been waiting so long for - Grey Gardens, the sitcom.” Nerys Evans, Channel 4’s Comedy Commissioning Editor, says: “We’re so delighted to have three of the country’s funniest comedy actresses come together on this glorious project, it’s beautifully written by Sam and Jesse, who are without a doubt the hottest comedy writers in the UK right now. If that mix of comedy talent wasn’t tantalising enough, it’s also directed by Ben Palmer, fresh from the record-breaking Inbetweeners Movie. To say we’re excited by Bad Sugar is a bit of an understatement.” Bad Sugar will be shown on Channel 4 next year. Meanwhile Olivia Colman is currently starring inRev and will continue to appear in Peep Show when it returns next year; Julia Davis stars in Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror on Channel 4 on December 11th; and Sharon Horgan is currently making Life Story, a new BBC Three sitcom set in a prison.