Code 404 also stars Daniel Mays and Stephen Graham

Richard Gadd is piloting a police comedy series for Sky One, Chortle can reveal.

With the working title Code 404, a sample episode was shot in London this summer, although it is not intended for broadcast.

The show co-stars Daniel Mays and Stephen Graham, with Motherland’s Anna Maxwell Martin and The Office's Patrick Baladi also having roles.

Not Going Out's Daniel Peak wrote the show, which was directed by Ben Palmer, whose credits include The Inbetweeners and Back.

Nothing is currently known about Gadd's role as Cleasby, while Mays's character is intriguingly named John Major.

Gadd and Mays starred together in the BBC Two docu-drama Against The Law last year, with Mays as gay rights pioneer  Peter Wildeblood and Gadd as his lover Eddie McNally. Mays tweeted a photo of the pair on the set of Code 404, saying 'reunited with my darling Eddie at last'.

Reunited with my darling Eddie at last. The one and only ⁦@MrRichardGadd⁩ #AgainstTheLaw pic.twitter.com/eDH8z4FDNU

— Daniel Mays (@DanielMays9) June 14, 2018

The show marks a return to the police procedural genre for Mays, who starred in Line of Duty. Earlier this month it was revealed that Graham has joined the upcoming fifth series of the successful BBC drama, too.

Code 404 is a ‘file not found’ error on the internet, which has been adopted as street slang for ‘clueless' in parts of London.

Though primarily known as dramatic actors, Mays recently made the comedy films Swimming with Men and Fishermen's Friends, while Graham was in Walk Like a Panther and Funny Cow.

The friends also starred together in the 2004 pot-dealing sitcom Top Buzzer, written by Johnny Vaughan and Ed Allen. Airing for a single series on MTV and later, Channel Five, it featured Sean Lock, Mackenzie Crook, Iain Lee and rapper Kanye West in guest roles.

- by Jay Richardson

Written by: Daniel Peak
Directed by: Ben Palmer
Produced by: Tom Miller for Water & Power Productions 
Executive producers:  Phil Temple and Diederick Santer for Kudos and Sam Myer from Water & Power

Published: 11 Oct 2018