With Chris O'Dowd and Nina Conti

Production has started on the new-improvised TV mockumentary from Spinal Tap’s Christopher Guest.

Family Tree will star The IT Crowd’s Chris O’Dowd as 30-year-old Tom Chadwick who loses his job and girlfriend, so starts investigating his lineage in search of a sense of identity.

Ventriloquist Nina Conti will play Tom’s sister, Bea – her most high-profile role to date – it was also announced today.

Guest and his co-creator Jim Piddock will also appear in the single-camera show, which will air on BBC Two in the UK and HBO in the States in the spring.

Filming will continue on location in Britain and Los Angeles until the new year.

Also in the cast are Tom Bennett, Ed Begley Jr., Maria Blasucci, Matt Griesser, Don Lake, Michael McKean, Lisa Palfrey, Amy Seimetz and Fred Willard.

BBC Two controller said: ‘’I am delighted to welcome Christopher Guest to BBC Television. It will be his first television series for British audiences and one I am proud to have here on the BBC. It has a stellar cast... and will form a key part of the channel’s comedy next year.”

O’Dowd added: ‘I’m terribly excited and monumentally under-qualified to work on an improvised show with Chris Guest.  I call him Chris ‘coz we are friends.  He calls me George.  I don’t know why.’

Guest – properly known as the 5th Baron Haden-Guest – also made the films Best In Show, Waiting For Guffman and For Your Consideration.

Published: 20 Nov 2012