Pilot for Breeders has been filmed

Martin Freeman is set to star in his first TV comedy in almost a decade.

The Office and Black Panther star has shot a pilot for the BBC and FX network in the US with Michael Gambon and Uncle's Daisy Haggard.

Breeders is written by Simon Blackwell, creator of Back and a writer on The Thick of It and Veep, and is directed by The Inbetweeners' Ben Palmer.

The plot remains unknown but was originated by Freeman.

'I've got a comedy thing in the pipeline that I'm helping to create' he told Jocks and Nerds magazine last year. 'Based on a dream I had, actually. It was sort of true, true about the way I feel about something. So I’m getting together with a very good writer and a very good director and we’re hammering that out at the moment.’

Shot in London in January, with locations including a tapas restaurant in Twickenham, the pilot will not be broadcast.

If Breeders goes to series, it will be Sherlock star Freeman's first recurring role on a British TV comedy since the 2009 ITV bodyswap saga Boy Meets Girl, although he appeared in Simon Amstell's one-off mockumentary Carnage last year.

While starring in and narrating the US comedy-drama Fargo, he has also had cameos in Toast of London and Brian Pern. And his next film is Ode To Joy, a comedy about a man who suffers acute narcolepsy whenever he's happy from Modern Family director Jason Winer.

Freeman previously appeared with Gambon in the 2007 rom-com The Good Night and alongside Haggard in the 2011 flop Swinging with the Finkels.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 2 Mar 2018