Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard return in BAFTA-nominated Sky Original Breeders starting Thursday 27th May

Following the critically acclaimed first series, Sky Original comedy Breeders, starring Emmy and BAFTA-winning Martin Freeman (Fargo, Sherlock, Black Panther) and International Emmy and BAFTA-nominated Daisy Haggard (Back to Life, Episodes, Black Mirror), returns to Sky One and streaming service NOW on Thursday 27 May. All ten episodes will be available on demand.

Breeders continues to explore the parental paradox that you’d happily die for your children, but quite often also want to kill them. In the new series, time has moved on from where we left Paul (Freeman) and Ally’s (Haggard) family. Their son Luke (Alex Eastwood) is now 13 years old and daughter Ava (Eve Prenelle) is now 10, both serving up brand new parenting challenges. Luke’s increasing anxiety and Ava’s growing independence add some new and uncharted complications into the existing chaotic mix of stretched resources, lack of time and the fine art of winging it while looking like you know what you’re doing.

Paul’s parents, Jackie (Joanna Bacon) and Jim (Alun Armstrong) are older too, as is Ally’s mother Leah (Stella Gonet), leading Paul and Ally to find that they now must parent the generation above them as well as the generation below. And at the centre of all this is Paul and Ally’s relationship. Can they survive these new pressures when they only just about survived the old ones? Or is there a finite number of ropes you can find yourself at the end of?

Daisy Haggard has been nominated for this year’s British Academy Television Award, Female Performance in a Comedy Programme, for her role in the series.

Breeders is produced by Avalon and FX Productions for FX Networks and Sky Originals. Academy Award®-nominee and double Emmy® Award-winner Simon Blackwell (Veep, Peep Show, The Personal History of David Copperfield, Back) is showrunner. Breeders is created by Blackwell, double Emmy Award and Directors Guild of America Award winner Chris Addison (Veep, The Thick of It, The Hustle) and Emmy and BAFTA®-winning Martin Freeman (Fargo, Sherlock, Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, The Hobbit), who also stars alongside Daisy Haggard (Back to Life, Episodes, Black Mirror). Executive producers are Blackwell, Addison, Freeman, Richard Allen-Turner, Rob Aslett, David Martin, Jon Thoday, Toby Welch (Catastrophe, The Tunnel, Skins) and Michael Wiggs. Tilusha Ghelani, Sky commissioning editor, is the executive producer for Sky. Ben Palmer (Man Up, The Inbetweeners Movie, Back) is co-executive producer and director of episodes 1-5, Dan Kay (The New Pope, The Salisbury Poisonings, Uncle) produces and Ollie Parsons (Man Like Mobeen, Hitmen, Revolting) is director of episode 6-10.

Episodes are available for press review Sky Screening Room.  

For more information please contact:

Molly Wyatt on Molly.Wyatt@sky.uk and Dominic Collett on Dominic.Collett@sky.uk at Sky

UK Press Quotes on Breeders

“beyond comedy and towards something rare...Writers Simon Blackwell, Chris Addison and Freeman himself have given us not only a couple we can honestly believe in but also a drama for modern times”

Euan Ferguson, The Observer

“terrific: dark, fresh, brutal, funny…Simon Blackwell and Chris Addison have managed the near-impossible by creating a parenting comedy that is not twee and makes the tired tropes of sleep deprivation and school-catchment obsession funny.” ★★★★

Carol Midgley, The Times

“For Breeders to deal with darker topics, including postnatal depression and what Blackwell calls “grief sex”, it adopts the knife-edge tone that defines the best modern TV comedy: able to nest real, wrenching drama into outlandish scenarios and vice versa, rather than offering viewers a predictable series of set-ups and positive punchlines”

Tom Faber, Financial Times  

“Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard excel in parenting sitcom with bite…Smart, spiky and hilarious” ★★★★

Morgan Jeffery, Radio Times

“crafted to perfection, Blackwell supplies a steady stream of laugh-out-loud lines and Freeman and Haggard immediately gel as a finely tuned double act playing off each other with exquisite timing” ★★★★

Mark Wareham, Mail On Sunday    

“The parent-torment sitcom Breeders, now on episode three, ‘No Accident’, is beginning to emulsify nicely…Breeders whizzes by, all zingers and howlers.” ★★★★

David Sexton, Evening Standard  

“Refreshingly truthful parenting comedy” ★★★★

Ian Hyland, The Mirror  

“a hilariously no-holds-barred look at the real challenges of parenting in the contemporary world…a brilliantly shocking opening that sets the tone for a show, which is beautifully observed and very funny” ★★★★★

Boyd Hilton, Heat Magazine  

“honest and uncompromising comedy pulling no punches as it explores the pressures of raising a family. Millions of mums and dads across Britain will sympathise…prepare for laughs, tears and plenty of swearing” ★★★★

Sean Marland, TV Times Magazine  

“Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard impress in Sky’s parental sitcom…their tight-knit, witty bitching about rival, “perfect ” schoolgate parents is a delight that never flags… a triumph”

Euan Ferguson, The Observer  

“a corker of an introduction…uncompromising but hilarious” ★★★★★
Mike Ward, Daily Star  

“last week’s opening double-bill was full of wonderful lines and hilarious situations. In short, it was everything you want from such a show” ★★★★

Daily Star Sunday 

“Freeman and Daisy Haggard, who plays Paul’s wife, Ally, are excellent as the couple whose united front cracks as sleep deprivation kicks in.”

Victoria Segal, The Sunday Times  

“When the great corona-shutdown kicks in, the Breeders crew might find they’ve made the most accidentally zeitgeisty programme of all time”

Victoria Coren Mitchell, The Telegraph  

“an unforgivingly accurate depiction of the lesser-spotted aspects of raising kids that will have most parents wincing in recognition… funny, seldom comfortable and worryingly relatable”

Gabriel Tate, The Telegraph  

“No-holds-barred ferocity…the show is fearless”

James Jackson, The Times  

“Tune in to for Freeman on top form as the wry and exasperated Paul”

Ammar Kalie, The Guardian and The Observer  

“Here’s the mother – and father – of all comedies for any parents who’ve endured sleepless nights while bringing up young children…thick with laughs”

Deborah Ross, Mail On Sunday  

“How many comedies are honest about what being a parent of young children entails? Maybe Motherland broke the mould, but Breeders takes it to another level… painfully funny”

David Butcher, Radio Times  

“Welcome to the set of Breeders, a new show that takes the best ingredients of Motherland and Outnumbered – middle-class dramas about parenting – and adds a large dose of the sheer fury that it can induce…Bitingly funny”

Nicole Lampert, Daily Mail  

“Doesn’t pull any punches…it’s genuinely laugh-out-loud funny”

Kate Noble, The Sun  

“Dark, honest and made all the more human by the welcome chaos of being a parent. It could be a scene from Breeders”

Guy Kelly, The Telegraph  

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About Avalon

Avalon is a multi-award-winning talent management, television production and live promotion group with offices in London, Los Angeles and New York.  

Avalon, Artist Rights Group (ARG) and The Agency represent a prolific roster of artists including comedians, actors, presenters, writers and directors. Avalon’s numerous ground-breaking returning television shows currently in production include: Not Going Out (BBC), the UK’s longest running sitcom on air; Taskmaster (Channel 4), the BAFTA-winning hit entertainment format showing in 100 countries; multi Emmy-winner, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); The Russell Howard Hour (Sky), the network’s most successful entertainment show launch since 2010; Starstruck, a new sitcom from the 2018 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Rose Matafeo (HBO Max/BBC); Everything’s Gonna Be Okay, from creator Josh Thomas (Freeform); Breeders, a sitcom starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard (FX/Sky); a new series of the iconic British satirical puppet show, Spitting Image (BritBox UK); and multiple comedy specials for Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Netflix.  

Other landmark Avalon shows include BAFTA winning and multi Emmy nominated Catastrophe (Amazon Prime Video/Channel 4), Fantasy Football League (BBC/ITV), multi BAFTA-winning TV Burp (ITV), and Workaholics (Comedy Central USA). Avalon also distributes its catalogue of programmes to over 150 countries worldwide.  Avalon has produced many globally successful podcasts and is at the top of the UK iTunes chart with the multi-award-winning Shagged. Married. Annoyed by Chris and Rosie Ramsey.