Ben Miller's Horrible Science coming to CITV
CITV has ordered a 10-part series of Horrible Science, a new children's sketch show.
Starring Ben Miller - who abandoned a PhD in solid state physics at Cambridge University to become an actor and comedian - the series is based on the series of factual popular-science books published by Scholastic.
As with the books they are respectively based on, the commission of Horrible Science follows the success of Horrible Histories on CBBC. The factually accurate historical comedy series has been running since 2009, and returns for a sixth series next week. Miller guest starred as King John in a recent special of Horrible Histories marking 800 years of Magna Carta.
Starring alongside Miller are stand-up comedian Chris Martin, Letty Butler (Wolfblood), Tom Bell (Episodes), Eleanor Lawrence (Mid-Morning Matters With Alan Partridge), Jason Forbes (Pompidou) and Susan Wokoma (Bluestone 42).
Producers say: "Horrible Science delights in the messy, gory and macabre, but as well as wallowing in all things yucky, it is full of fascinating science.
"Each episode has a central scientific theme (Gruesome Guts, Vicious Veg, Bulging Brains, Chemical Chaos etc) which is explored with comedy sketches, experiments, and songs. There is also an interview with a 'celebrity guest', where a guest actor plays a celebrated scientist from history (eg. Marie Curie, Robert Hooke, Edward Jenner). Guest actors already lined up include Marcus Garvey, David Armand and Alexander Armstrong."
They add: "Although primarily aimed at children, adults will also find plenty to wonder and laugh at."
Horrible Science has been co-funded by ITV, The Wellcome Trust, ABC Australia, and Discovery Asia, and is being produced by Miller's production company, Toff Media.
Ben Miller says: "I've loved science ever since I was a kid, and making Horrible Science has been a dream come true. The utterly brilliant Horrible Science books have given us a wealth of characters, jokes, and - as they would put it - 'squishy bits' to plunder, and we haven't held back. This is the perfect show to get kids and adults alike hooked on science."
Jimmy Mulville, co-executive producer, says: "We're thrilled to be bringing these fantastic books to the screen. If Horrible Science had been around when I was a kid I'd have done a lot better at Chemistry!"
Horrible Science is written by David Armand, Marc Haynes, Will MacLean, Ali Crockatt, David Scott, Julia Kent and Mark Oswin.
Filming is now underway in Wimbledon, South West London. The series is planned to broadcast from late Summer on CITV.