Julia Davis

Stereotypes abounded in Bad Sugar, a star-studded pilot spoof, written by Peep Show's Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and based on telenovelas and old American TV soaps - Dynasty, Dallas], [i]The Bold and the Beautiful. Except this dysfunctional, filthy-rich family of lip-glossed gold-diggers and useless husbands was British, with a tight-fisted mining billionaire father at its helm. Julia Davis and Sharon Horgan performed their "rich bitch" parts perfectly adequately ("bitch is as bitch does"), as did Olivia Colman as an animal-loving frump. Given everyone's calibre, this wasn't as funny as you might have expected. There were some good lines - when Davis's daughter ran to her in her nightdress, crying, "Mummy, I'm scared", Davis retorted: "Tell teddy about it. He'll listen." But I suspect watching repeats of Joan Collins's Dynasty might actually be funnier.

Mangling accents and genres with glee, Bad Sugar is one of the more promising pilots of C4's Funny Fortnight. Starring three-headed comedy hydra Julia Davis, Sharon Horgan and Olivia Colman, it's equal parts telenovela, costume drama and pseudo-glossy, 'Dallas'-style family saga. The plotting - centred around the will of an ageing patriarch (David Bradley) and the scheming of his three children (plus Horgan's cuckoo in the nest, Lucy) - is self-consciously ridiculous. But Bad Sugar is sustained by a host of brilliant performances. In addition to the above, look out for Kayvan Novak (dim gardener Simon) and Peter Serafinowicz (closeted son Rolf). Tonight, the fingers of Colman's piano-playing naif Joan are mangled by a red-hot boule ball; the absurdity can only escalate when a full series airs next year.

As a black comedy-cum-period drama based on Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, it's reasonable to point out that Julia Davis' first full series since Nighty Night isn't quite like anything else on television. It's also markedly different to her previous work, with a tight, playfully literary script accentuating the bizarre bleakness. A shipwreck survivor marries the local pastor, and Davis' Mrs Danvers-esque Dorothy is most displeased ... Original, bold and brilliant.

Julia Davis: 'I don't want to offend anyone'

She made her name playing monstrous comic characters in the likes of Nighty Night, Gavin & Stacey and Human Remains - and her latest project is a twisted period drama. Surprising, then, that Julia Davis turns out to be the shy, retiring type.

Julia Davis stars alongside Olivia Colman and Sharon Horgan in a spoof of Latin American telenovelas from Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. Sending up a genre that's already a send-up of itself is a tough ask, but they pull it off.

Fans of Nighty Night, Julia Davis#s arch black comedy about a demented beauty parlour owner, will be cheered to see her name on both acting and writing credits for Hunderby, a new eight-parter that's tough to categorise. Borrowing heavily from the plot of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, it's all shipwrecks, candles, parsimonious parsons and jealous housekeepers; pornographic language dressed up in period costume. In a word, odd.

Comedy fans, prepare to be excited. This new pilot has impeccable pedigree, being written by Peep Show's Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and starring three of our funniest actresses: Olivia Colman (Rev.), Julia Davis (Nighty Night) and Sharon Horgan (Pulling). It's a soapy spoof melodrama - think Dallas done by French and Saunders - about a rich, dysfunctional mining dynasty. Cue face-slapping, bitching and deliberately clumsy exposition.

In her first series since the terrific Nighty Night, writer and comic actress Julia Davis brings her dark humour to a homage to Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. With Davis's signature mix of double entendre, wince-making comedy and absurdity, this eight-part series, set in the 19th century, begins with a shipwreck. Survivor Helene (Alexandra Roach) is washed up on an English shore and rescued by the local pastor, who promptly asks her to marry him. This riles jealous housekeeper Dorothy (Davis).

Olivia Colman: 'I like that she's not quite right'

Olivia Colman teams up with Julia Davis and Sharon Horgan for Bad Sugar, a wickedly funny new black comedy about a dysfunctional mining dynasty from the writers of Peep Show.

Julia Davis interview

Nighty Night creator Julia Davis tells Metro about the inspiration behind her characters, working with Rob Brydon and her new Sky Atlantic sitcom Hunderby.