Work starts on Sky's cult comedy

Production has just begun on Sky’s new cult comedy This Is Jinsy, with Little Britain and Psychoville director Matt Lipsey has joined the team behind S.

The eight-part series, which originally piloted on BBC Three in March last year, will air on the broadcaster’s new high-end Sky Atlantic HD channel in the summer.

Lipsey’s involvement in the series was only announced today. He said: ‘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 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 in box. 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.’

The series, set on the fictional Island of Jinsy, is written by and stars Chris Bran and Justin Chubb. It was originally piloted by Sky’s head of comedy, Lucy Lumsden when she was at the BBC, and was nominated for the prestigious Rose d’Or award last year.

The creators said in a statement: ‘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.’

Lumsden added: ‘When production meetings start with us all upstanding for The Jinsy National Anthem you know you’re on to a good thing.’

This Is Jinsy will be filmed in at Sky’s own studios and at Duke’s Island Studios, West London.

Here is a clip from the pilot:

Published: 3 Feb 2011