New comedy from Peep Show duo

Peep Show and Fresh Meat creators Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong have written a new comedy for Channel 4, spoofing glitzy Dynasty-style soap operas.

A pilot of the show, called Bad Sugar, has been commissioned featuring a cast of top stars, including Olivia Colman, Julia Davis and Sharon Horgan – all of whom also helped conceive the idea.

Peter Serafinowicz, the League Of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith and Harry Potter actor David Bradley also have roles in the half-hour pilot.

The plot involves a dysfunctional, wealthy mining dynasty, with an ailing patriarch and some greedy siblings. Channel 4 say it is ‘a peculiarly British take on telenovela style melodramas, played for laughs’.

Commissioning editor Nerys Evans said: ‘We’re so delighted to have three of the country’s funniest comedy actresses come together on this glorious project, it’s beautifully written by Sam and Jesse, who are without a doubt the hottest comedy writers in the UK right now.

‘If that mix of comedy talent wasn’t tantalising enough, it’s also directed by Ben Palmer, fresh from the record-breaking Inbetweeners Movie.’

In a statement, Bain and Armstrong said: ‘We've always wanted to write a show with poisonings, death threats, extreme psychological pain and big hair.

‘With the help of the amazing cast we're hoping it might be what everyone in UK television has been waiting so long for - Grey Gardens, the sitcom.’

Grey Gardens was a 1975 documentary about two relatives of Jackie Kennedy who lived in isolated squalor in the Hamptons.

Published: 30 Nov 2011