Sky backs British Comedy talent with new series of Sky Original shorts
Sky backs British Comedy talent with new series of Sky Original shorts
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.
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.
Notes to Editors
For more information please contact: Lucy Butterfield
Sky Comedy Shorts: full credits
Life’s A Pitch is produced by CPL Productions and Licklemor Productions.
- Writer & Associate Director: Nathan D'Arcy Roberts
- Producer: Antonia Miller
- Director: Rosie Gaunt Mathieson
- DOP: Sashi Kisson
Diane from Accounts is produced by CPL Productions and Licklemor Productions.
- Writer: Desiree Burch & Jayshree Patel
- Based on an idea by Desiree Burch and Grace Ofori-Attah
- Producer: Antonia Miller
Past Caring is produced by Sky Studios and Ranga Bee Productions.
- Writers: Rosie Jones & Jen Brister
- Producer: Kevin Muyolo
- Director: Bethan Seller
- DOP: Cliff Evans
Real Friends is produced by Sky Studios and Ranga Bee Productions.
- Writers: Rachel Stubbings & Jess Fostekew
- Producer: Kevin Muyolo
- Directors: Rachel Stubbings & Benjamin Green
- DOP: Cliff Evans
Seen is produced by Sky Studios and Ranga Bee Productions.
- Writer: Jordan Brookes
- Producer: Hayley Sterling
- Director: Jack Carrivick
- DOP: Rick Burnell
Silo is produced by Sky Studios.
- Writers: Tom Neenan,
- Producer: Hayley Sterling
- Director: Phoebe Bourke
- DOP: Anthony Lucas
Six Foot Something is produced by Hat Trick Productions.
- Writer: Yemi Oyefuwa
- Producer: Claire Broughton
About Sky
Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of Comcast Corporation, a global media and technology company that connects people to moments that matter. Across six countries, Sky connects 23 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news, arts and to our own award-winning original content.
Following the launch of Sky Glass, we now offer customers our strongest ever line-up of products and services. As well as the new streaming TV with Sky inside and everything integrated, customers can enjoy the award-winning Sky Q with all your favourite channels and apps in one place, and with Sky Go you can now access an even better experience on your devices. Sky TV has new channels, new shows and new deals with Peacock, Paramount+ and more. Sky Mobile was voted Best Pay Monthly and Best Value Pay Monthly network by Uswitch, and with Sky Broadband we’re offering our fastest speeds yet.
Building on the success of Sky Originals like Chernobyl, Gangs of London and Brassic, we are doubling our investment in original content by 2024 through Sky Studios. Our new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, is expected to create over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK over the first five years alone. Sky News provides impartial and trustworthy journalism for free; Sky Arts is the UKs only dedicated free-to-air arts channel making the arts accessible for everyone and Sky Sports, our leading sports broadcasting service, brings customers some of the biggest and best global sporting events from the Premier League to Formula 1 and everything in-between. Sky Cinema is the home of Sky Original films with brand new films launching every month alongside an unrivalled range of the latest cinema releases and on demand library.
We believe that we can be a force for good in the communities in which we operate. We’re committed to being Europe’s first net zero carbon entertainment company by 2030 and we’re proud to be a Principal Partner and Media Partner of COP26 – the UN Climate Change Conference. We take pride in our approach to diversity and inclusion: we’ve been recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our commitment to diversity, and we’ve set ambitious 2025 targets to continue to increase diversity and representation. We’re also committed to investing £30million across our markets over the next three years to improve our approach to diversity and inclusion, and to tackle racial injustice.
