Psychoville director Matt Lipsey signs up for This Is Jinsy
Sky TV have announced that Matt Lipsey, the director of BAFTA award-winning Little Britain and Psychoville, has signed up to act as as series director on its original comedy commission This Is Jinsy.
The eight part series goes in production at the end of the month, and will air on Sky's new channel, Sky Atlantic HD, in the summer.
Matt Lipsey says: "In early 2009 I was coming to the end of the first series of Psychoville and starting to look around for the next project. There were a few good scripts about but everything seemed to pale by comparison. Cut to the autumn of last year as Psychoville series two was winding down [which will be shown on BBC Two soon] and I found that the same slightly depressed feeling come over me in anticipation of what was to come, then This Is Jinsy pinged into my inbox. I read an extraordinary script and watched a fantastical pilot, sitting in the Psychoville edit suite. Charlie, my editor, eventually had to come over and see what it was that I was laughing at so much. This is the kind of visionary story-telling that I live for."
This Is Jinsy, which is written by and stars newcomers Chris Bran and Justin Chubb, is a surreal sitcom about the bizarre residents living on a fictional island. The format was first piloted on BBC Three in 2010, but the BBC turned down the option to make a full series. However, Lucy Lumsden, Sky's new Head of Comedy, ordered a full eight-part series for Sky Atlantic - it was she, in her previous role as Head of Comedy at the BBC, who had commissioned the pilot.
Producers James Dean and Chris Carey, from The Welded Tandem Picture Company, say: "We are thrilled that a director of Matt's calibre and experience is steering the Jinsy ship through this first series. He gets offered the pick of all the most interesting comedy series and it's a real endorsement of Chris and Justin's abilities that he has chosen to make This Is Jinsy his next project after Psychoville."
Lucy Lumsden adds: "I'm really excited about This Is Jinsy coming to Sky Atlantic HD. Chris and Justin have brought to life a unique world of delightfully bonkers inhabitants and written some utterly inspired songs. When production meetings start with us all upstanding for The Jinsy National Anthem you know you're on to a good thing."
Here is the trailer from the pilot of This Is Jinsy...