...starring Tom Conti and Sally Phillips

Sky1 has commissioned a new family sitcom starring Sally Phillips and Tom Conti.

The six-part series Parents will be filmed in March ready to go out in the summer.

Phillips, whose credits include I’m Alan Partridge and Miranda, stars alongside Darren Strange as a married couple with two teenage kids, who are forced to move in with one set of their parents, played by Conti and Susie Blake, from Coronation Street and Victoria Wood’s TV shows.

It has been by Lloyd Woolf, formerly of sketch group Cowards, with fellow TV newcomer Joe Tucker.

Sky’s head of comedy, Lucy Lumsden, who commissioned the series, said: ‘We’ve been on the hunt for smart comedies about family life for Sky 1 HD and feel we have found it with Parents. We’re very excited about the cast we’ve managed to attract and can’t wait to start production.’

Producer Ben Farrell from Objective Productions added: ‘We’ve loved working with Joe, Lloyd and Lucy on the PARENTS scripts, and can’t wait to bring them to life.’

Parents is the latest comedy commission from Sky, which has promised to spend £600 million a year in British programmes across its channels by 2014. So far, the new commissions have included Trollied, Stella and Spy.

Meanwhile, Sky Atlantic has today announced it has bought the rights to the dark US comedy series House Of Lies, about the way big business operates. The half-hour series stars Don Cheadle as a cutthroat consultant and Kristen Bell as his razor-sharp colleague.

The show will launch on America’s premium Showtime channel this month, and air on Sky Atlantic in the summer. Here is a trailer:

Published: 12 Jan 2012