Commission for Simon Bird and Joe Thomas's WW1 comedy

Sky has commissioned the Simon Bird First World War comedy Chickens, after Channel 4 decided not to pick it up.

Bird wrote a pilot episode of the show with his co-stars Jonny Sweet and Joe Thomas, which aired on Channel 4 last year.

They decided not to go any further with the idea of three men dodging the war in an English village – leaving Sky’s head of comedy Lucy Lumsden free to order six half-hour episodes.

Kenton Allen, of production company Big Talk, said: ‘I know that Simon, Jonny and Joe will play a huge role in the future story of British comedy and it's particularly thrilling that Sky1 HD are helping them make the big leap forward with their own authored series.’

The trio have been writing together since meeting at Cambridge university, taking their first show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007.

Published: 23 Feb 2012