Sky orders step-parent comedy from Schitt's Creek writer Monica Heisey
- Sky has ordered Smothered, a six-part comedy drama from Schitt's Creek writer Monica Heisey
- Made by Roughcut, the series is inspired by producer Emma Lawson's experience of step-parenting
- The commission follows a successful non-broadcast pilot shot in London last autumn
Sky has ordered a six-part comedy drama about step-parenting from Schitt's Creek writer Monica Heisey, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
Predominantly shooting in London, Smothered is made by Roughcut (Stath Lets Flats, Big Boys) and is loosely inspired by the personal experience of producer Emma Lawson (Cuckoo, Hospital People), although Lauriel Martin (Avoidance, Mum) is producing the series.
The commission for the 30-minute episodes follows a successful non-transmission pilot shot in London in September and October last year, directed by Luke Snellin (Feel Good, The Job Lot).
Casting for the series has yet to emerge.
Former stand-up Heisey has written for television in the UK and her native Canada. As well as the Emmy-winning Schitt's Creek, the London-based scribe's credits include Everything I Know About Love and The Cleaner, co-writing Sindhu Vee's Channel 4 pilot Winning, and the long-running Canadian series Baroness von Sketch Show.
Also developing projects with Olga Koch, Laura Whitmore and Newark, Newark creator Nathan Foad, Heisey published I Can't Believe It's Not Better: A Woman's Guide to Coping with Life in 2016, a collection of stories, essays and advice, and has written for the Guardian, New York Times and New Yorker.
Her debut novel, Really Good, Actually, loosely based upon her experience of divorce in her twenties, is published in January.
When it was announced, she said: "They say you're supposed to try to be the person you needed when you were a teenager... this is the book I needed when I was 28 and having what might charitably be called A Bit Of A Weird One. During my own divorce at a young age, I was desperate to read or watch something that spoke to the strangeness of my unexpected circumstances. When I couldn't find anything, I started writing this book."
BBC commissioning editor Lawson was at production companies such as Objective and Fremantle, before spending a decade at Roughcut working on comedies such as People Just Do Nothing and Cuckoo. More recently, she produced Trying for Apple TV+, its first UK scripted comedy.