Chris Bran

The opening episode of This Is Jinsy has, in fact, aired before: featuring David Tennant as an overly camp television game-show host, and revolving around life on the tiny, other-worldly island of Jinsy, it was broadcast in March of last year as a pilot on BBC. Now it's back, as a full-blown (but sadly, after episode one, Tennant-less) series on Sky Atlantic.

The gist, broadly, is this: Jinsy (population 971) is stuck somewhere in the 1970s, governed by Arbiter Maven - whose nasal hairs offer insights into the future - and populated by means of a random televised "marriage lottery". And, Tennant or no, it is brilliantly done. The world that's been created is genuinely surreal, with its televised punishment round-ups, bizarre clothing and odd religion, which sees residents don cupboards in a mistaken attempt to welcome the messiah. It's part Yellow Submarine, part Hitchhiker's Guide, part League of Gentlemen. Written by its two stars, Justin Chubb and Chris Bran, it offers a slice of oddball humour quite unlike anything else to be found.

This Is Jinsy review: Tune in your tesselators

It is as much of a challenge to find the words to describe Sky Atlantic's new comedy series, This is Jinsy, as it is to work out what is actually going on in the bizarre sitcom. Written by and starring the previously unknown comedy duo of Chris Bran and Justin Chubb, the sitcom is set on the fictional island of Jinsy, where 791 seemingly bonkers residents live.

The gist, broadly, is this: Jinsy (population 971) is stuck somewhere in the 1970s, governed by Arbiter Maven - whose nasal hairs offer insights into the future - and populated by means of a random televised "marriage lottery". It is brilliantly done. The world that's been created is genuinely surreal, with its televised punishment round-ups, bizarre clothing and odd religion, which sees residents don cupboards in a mistaken attempt to welcome the messiah. It's part Yellow Submarine, part Hitchhiker's Guide, part League of Gentlemen. Written by its two stars, Justin Chubb and Chris Bran, it offers a slice of oddball humour quite unlike anything else to be found.

Although the pilot was a BBC affair, this new comedy series arrives on Sky. Created by and starring comedians/music video directors Chris Bran and Justin Chubb, it's set on the isolated fictional isle of Jinsy. It's all about silly situations and funny wordplay, more like The Goons and Stanley Unwin than Little Britain. Its good supporting cast includes Alice Lowe (Darkplace), Harry Hill and even David Tennant.

Words can't adequately describe this gloriously eccentric new British sitcom - you'll just have to see it for yourself.

But imagine Monty Python, The League of Gentlemen, George Orwell's 1984 and An Island Parish in a blender - along with some spectacularly cheap scenery - and you'll start to get an idea.

It's written by and stars the previously unknown pair of Chris Bran and Justin Chubb (where have they been all our lives?), and is set on the tiny fictional island of Jinsy.

The island is dotted with devices called tesselators that look like those money-in-the slot viewing machines you find on the end of the pier.

These act as two-way CCTV, where folk can see what's going on and also be spied on by the island's fussy arbiter Maven and his assistant Sporall.

The constant flow of surreal ideas and sight gags lends this a sketch-show quality in parts.

There are hilarious folk songs, photo-copying owls and Harry Hill in drag as Joon Boolay presenting the island's weekly Punishment Round-up.

But in the first episode of tonight's double bill, the big draw sees guest star David Tennant playing local celebrity Mr Slightlyman - the master of the balls in the regular wedding lottery.

Peter Serafinowicz is just as fabulous as an evangelical cupboard salesman in the second episode.

A pilot for This Is Jinsy was screened on BBC Three in March last year, but they foolishly failed to pick it up for a full series and it's now on Sky Atlantic.

The show is directed by Matt Lipsey of Psychoville and Little Britain fame.

Well, I hope BBC Three is kicking itself right now because this has got cult classic written all over it.

Imagine Terry Gilliam and the Zucker brothers co-directing a remake of The Wicker Man starring Stanley Unwin and Flight of the Conchords. You're now about a seventh of the way to appreciating the silly, knobbly magic of This Is Jinsy. It's a secret club you must join.

Set on the musty, muddy-brown island of Jinsy, it stars its previously unknown writers Justin Chubb and Chris Bran as Maven, the community's fussing "arbiter", and his sensible sidekick Sporall. They're a classic sitcom duo but little else is familiar in this bumper hamper of visual gags, twisted characters and fantastic parodies of 1960s folk-pop.

The opening double bill features David Tennant as a flamboyant game show host, and Peter Serafinowicz as a cupboard salesman.

Surreal comedy often treads a very fine line. While the likes of Eddie Izzard, Reeves & Mortimer and Charlie Chuck are able to invoke seemingly random non sequesters to hilarious effect, many others have tried and failed. The BBC Three pilot This is Jinsy, a fun, low-budget sitcom set on an island community so eccentric and bizarre, it makes Royston Vasey look like Slough, just about manages to raise enough smiles and, in particular, has enough charm to deserve a return for a full series.

Written, directed by and starring Chris Bran and Justin Chubb, and script edited by TV's Emma Kennedy, This is Jinsy is by no means perfect, and certainly doesn't reach the heights of its predecessor on the channel, The Mighty Boosh. The pilot's story, about extending the "tessellators" (strange televisions/cameras throughout the island, like something from Orwell's 1984) to the tribe-inhabited Old Jinsy was full of many more clichés than you'd expect from such an outlandish concept, and many of the plot developments and punchlines could be seen a mile off. But it still managed to win me over, thanks to Bran and Chubb's affable performances, some fun songs and some very funny moments along the way.

Writers Justin Chubb and Chris Bran play Maven and Sporrall, the hapless administrators of Jinsy Island, in this whimsical surrealist sitcom pilot that should satisfy people mourning the lack of any new Boosh output.