Sky One's Intelligence to be set in GCHQ

David Schwimmer and Nick Mohammed are to star in a new comedy series about spies in GCHQ.

Sky One will air the six-part comedy series Intelligence, in which the former Friends star plays a power-hungry, maverick NSA agent who joins a cyber-crime unit at the Cheltenham eavesdropping centre, which the broadcaster calls ' a weedier, geekier, more bureaucratic version of MI5 and MI6'.

Mohammed – known for his Mr Swallow character on the live circuit as well as movie roles ranging from Ab Fab to Christopher Robin – plays an inept and tactless computer analyst. He also wrote the show, which he first revealed to Chortle in June this year.

Nerys Evans of production company Expectation said: ‘Even though the stakes are really high for the team, fighting cyber-crime, our six-part comedy series reveals the reality is not dissimilar to any other office environment, from temperamental photocopiers to meeting rooms being double booked,

‘David Schwimmer and Nick Mohammed have a fantastic "odd couple" chemistry and the scripts are brilliantly funny, we can’t wait to see the world of Intelligence come to life.’

Schwimmer said: ‘I have no idea what this show is about but if it’s called Intelligence, naturally I’m going to be part of it.’

Mohammed called the chance to work with Schwimmer ‘an absolute dream come true. He’s collaborative, honest and exquisitely funny and I couldn’t be more delighted and flattered by his involvement.’

But referring to the story of Schwimmer’s lookalike being caught on CCTV as part of a theft investigation earlier this year, Mohammed added: ‘We did initially offer the part to the local shoplifter from Blackpool, but he wasn’t available, sadly.

‘Either way, we hope that everyone at GCHQ is as excited about this series as we are. I presume they were aware of this series being green-lit way before we ever were.’

Published: 18 Dec 2018