Olivia Colman to star in Channel 4 sitcom Flowers
Peep Show and Rev star Olivia Colman has signed up for her next comedy role. The comic actress stars in Channel 4 sitcom pilot Flowers alongside Mighty Boosh actor Julian Barratt.
Described by the network as an "imaginative and visually stunning narrative comedy about an eccentric family struggling to hold themselves together", the show will star Colman and Barratt as a wife and husband who are "barely together but yet to divorce".
Maurice is the author of a series of children's books titled The Grubbs, whilst Deborah is a music teacher. The pair live with his elderly mother, Hattie, and their twenty five year-old twins Amy and Donald in a "creaky, messy, crumbling old house'=".
Big School star Daniel Rigby has been cast as Donald.
Flowers has been written by Will Sharpe, the co-creator of the critically acclaimed 2011 film Black Pond. The writer and performer has cast himself in the role of the family's home help in the pilot.
The project is being worked on by Kudos, the production company that also makes Broadchurch, the hit detective drama that Colman stars in.
Currently a non-broadcast pilot project, filming has just finished on the opening episode with Channel 4 hopeful that it will progress to a full series.
Phil Clarke, Channel 4's head of comedy, told The Guardian: "It is really dark, funny and challenging - everything a Channel 4 family sitcom should be. It's possibly the most dysfunctional family you will ever come across and yet somehow they still manage to function as a family. The humour is very dark but at times it's really broad as well. It's a very original piece - I don't think there's anything like it anywhere else."
He added: "They have twins, a son and a daughter, the nanny lives at the house as well; they have neighbours and there are builders in. If it goes to a full series the builders will probably always be there. It's got all the classic sitcom things and yet it is absolutely not like anything else I have read for a very, very long time."
News on whether Flowers will be given the green light to be turned into a series is expected in 2015. In the meantime Colman will be filming the next series of Broadchurch.