Sky backs comedies
- A fourth series of Brassic is being written, ahead of Series 3 airing this autumn
- Third series of Breeders and Intelligence are also in the works
- Further episodes of The Reluctant Landlord have also been in development
Sky has reiterated its commitment to comedy, as work resumes on several of its sitcoms.
A fourth series of Brassic is being written ahead of the third airing this autumn on Sky One, British Comedy Guide has learned. Drafting is also underway on a third series of Intelligence, ahead of the second run of episodes airing on the channel next month, although BCG understands that the spy comedy's recommission is less straightforward.
Meanwhile, script meetings are currently underway on a third series of Breeders, while further episodes of The Reluctant Landlord were in development before the coronavirus pandemic struck.
Sky has yet to officially greenlight any of the four comedies' return and it is unknown whether work has continued on the third series of The Reluctant Landlord, Romesh Ranganathan's pub sitcom. BCG has approached Sky for an update.
Starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard as struggling parents, the second series of Breeders aired on FX in the US earlier this year and comes to Sky One on Thursday. The show's writers' room has reconvened for future episodes already, Simon Blackwell revealed last month.
"We really wanted to get a physical room together because there is just that element missing on Zoom," the writer told US entertainment industry website Deadline. "You can feel the vibe of the project and that's harder to get when you're all remotely starring down the barrel of your laptop.
'There is something to be said to be for real-life It allows you silences, which are essential in writers' rooms. People just sitting there thinking: 'We've done two, three-day weeks, and as much as I love my family, it's nice to hang out with other people.'"
Blackwell, who writes in a team that includes his fellow The Thick Of It alumnus Chris Addison, added that "if there were a season three, we would want to make it as distinctive and as ambitious as the first two. So there would be some different stuff going on."
Brassic's third series, which stars Joe Gilgun, Michelle Keegan, Damien Molony and Ryan Sampson as friends in the fictional town of Hawley, had been scheduled to shoot in August last year but was postponed until October because of coronavirus. It is currently set to air on the 6th of October. Sampson has disclosed that filming also had to circumvent his broken foot.
"I tell you what's going to be interesting is watching how they've cropped out my leg when I have got that big cast on" he told the It's Your Funeral podcast. "At one point there's a bin that just randomly appears in front of me. In quite a lot of scenes, everyone just leaves me behind and I just appear at the next place they're walking to."
Intelligence's second series returns on the 8th of June, with creator Nick Mohammed and David Schwimmer joined by new cast members Morgana Robinson, Diane Morgan, Nick Helm, Alastair Roberts and Vivian Oparah.