Script now being worked on

The Johnny Vegas sitcom Ideal is to be made into a film.

Creator Graham Duff is working on a script, and filming is expected to start early next year.

Baby Cow, the company which produced all seven series of the show for the BBC Three, will make the film, too. Chief executive Henry Normal told Chortle: ‘It’s going to be set in the same place, with many of the same characters. We even brought the physical set from the BBC, our co-producers on the TV series.

‘We are aiming for it to be quite a dark psychological comedy-thriller.’

He said the show, in which Vegas plays small-time Manchester drug dealer Moz, still has a lot of support – with hardcore fans staging ‘Ideal’ nights across the country. Many feature performances from the stand-ups who played many of the characters in the TV series.

The film will be directed by Ben Wheatley, who previously made 14 episodes of the TV series, as well as episodes of The Wrong Door and Modern Toss. He was also one of the writers on Armando Iannucci’s Time Trumpet

Baby Cow is becoming increasingly active in film, with the forthcoming Alan Partridge movie being the first in which the company has been the lead producer.

Ideal ran on BBC Three from 2005 until last year – when it was axed as part of incoming controller Zai Bennett’s ‘bonfire of the comedies’, despite attracting record ratings. He has cleared the schedules of all the shows he inherited, except Russell Howard’s Good News, to make way for commissions of his own.

The show found acting roles for a whole host of live-circuit acts including Seymour Mace, Andrew Lawrence, Joanna Neary, Jo Enright, Tony Burgess and Mick Miller, who played Moz’s dad.

Published: 29 Jun 2012