Brydon's outback comedy

Marion and Geoff star Rob Brydon is to star a new BBC2 comedy about five British astronomers working in a remote Australian outpost.

Supernova will be filmed in the semi-desert outback town of Broken Hill, around 700 miles west of Sydney.

The show is due to go into production in Australia early in 2005, MediaGuardian reports, for expected to be broadcast later in the year.

It is being written by Harry Cripps, of Fox World Australia, which is making the half-hour show with UK independent producer Hartswood Films - the company behind Men Behaving Badly and Coupling.

Brydon has recently been working with Little Britain star David Walliams on Home, a forthcoming BBC3 comedy set in old people's home, also starring Ronnie Corbett.

Supernova will not be the first comedy set among outback astronomers – as a remote radio relay centre was the setting for the cult 2000 movie The Dish.

Published: 21 Oct 2004