Show revolves around a stand-up teaching a comedy course

Omid Djalili has revealed more details of the sitcom pilot he has shot in his Ipswich home town.

The comic this week screened the test episode at the University of Suffolk, where the comedy is set, and said the audience of 140 ‘loved it - now we can go and pitch it’.

He explained: ‘It's a new format about a comedian who goes in to teach comedy at the University of Suffolk, but the problem is he has to teach it with a comedy critic who hates him.’

Djalili takes the lead role with the journalist played by Tom Goodman Hill, who portrayed the sexual abuser Darrien O’Connor in Baby Reindeer.

The sitcom also it also stars Llewella Gideon, who played Grandma Veronica in Channel 4’s Queenie, and is being directed by Matt Lipsey, whose credits include Ted Lasso, Inside No.9 and Intelligence.

Speaking on BBC Radio Suffolk, 58-year-old Djalili said the premise was loosely  based on an invitation he received to host a comedy course at the university. Although that came to nothing it inspired him to create the sitcom.

He said: ‘We were going to shoot it with my production company as a reality show, but then we said, "Why don't we just shoot it as a sitcom?" I told the university and they said they'd love it. So, we put something together.

‘We have a top class team and I am not sure how it happened. I was looking for the one ingredient which would make it international – and that's that it is set in Ipswich.’

Djalili wrote the script with his children Ara Devine, Isabella Djalili-Devine, and Louis Djalili. Together they all run production company Tiny Speck, which is making the show with London-based Nest Productions.

Shahin Sobhani, who worked with  Djalili on David Baddiel’s film The Infidel is on board as an executive producer.

Published: 14 Aug 2024