BBC passes on Seann Walsh's monastery sitcom

The BBC have decided not to make a series of the monastery-set sitcom Monks, which aired earlier this year.

A pilot, which starred Seann Walsh as a slacker who joined a monastery to avoid prosecution for benefit fraud, was broadcast on BBC One in May as part of its revived Comedy Playhouse strand.

Writer Danny Robins has now revealed that the comedy has not been picked up for series, 'at least by the BBC'.

The pilot also starred Fergus Craig, James Fleet, Justin Edwards and Mark Heap and was the latest incarnation of an idea that had been 14 years in the making. It first surfaced as a one-off on Radio 2 in 2000, called Hey Hey We’re The Monks and starring Bill Bailey and Catherine Tate, and in 2008, BBC One made another, unbroadcast, pilot starring James Corden and described at the time as ‘Father Ted meets Men Behaving Badly’.

A corporation spokesman confirmed Monks will not go to series but could not give any news on the other Comedy Playhouse pilots: Over To Bill with Hugh Dennis as a weatherman who gets fired; and Miller's Mountain, about mountain rescue volunteers.

Robins' latest sitcom, In The Cold Swedish Winter, starring Adam Riches as a British comedian who moves to Scandinavia, aired on Radio 4 last night. Click here to listen again.

Published: 12 Aug 2014