Comedy and Drama summer 2017 highlights

4 July 2017

 

Gameface

 

GameFace: E4 - Date TBC

Roisin Conaty’s self-penned sitcom GameFace, a new 6x30 comedy for E4 which began life as a comedy BLAP, sees Conaty play Marcella, an aspiring actress with a distinct world view who despite being ever optimistic can’t quite get her work, family or love life on track. The series follows Marcella as she tries to make a success of her life and career, and navigate the changing landscape of her 30’s, whilst still recovering from the break-up of a long term relationship. She is aided and abetted by her therapist, played by Karl Theobald (Green Wing, Plebs), friends and, unusually, her driving instructor. Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless) plays Marcella's mum with Francis Magee (Witless, Game of Thrones, Rogue One) as her furious dad and Dylan Edwards (Wasted, Pramface) as wayward brother Billy. Damien Molony (Crashing, Being Human) plays her long-suffering driving instructor Jon, Nina Toussaint-White (Uncle, Emmerdale) and comedian Caroline Ginty play Lucy and Caroline, Marcella's best friends and flatmates, and Dustin Demri Burns (Cardinal Burns, Pyschobitches) is ex-boyfriend Simon.

 

Man Down: Late Summer

Greg Davies returns with his critically acclaimed sitcom. Walking disaster-area and child-trapped-in-a-man's-body Dan (Greg Davies) is locked in a soft-focus dream of his impending fatherhood; he’s quit his much hated job as a teacher and is applying his unique work ethic to another, more earthy profession. With Aunt Nesta (Stephanie Cole) and his mum (Gwyneth Powell) now in a retirement village “pissing my inheritance up a wall” Dan is on an increasingly desperate hunt find a new home for his soon-to-be family. Helped by his oldest friends, uptight financial advisor Brian (Mike Wozniak) and the irrepressibly bonkers serial-‘entrepreneur’ Jo (Roisin Conaty), can Dan finally grow up to become the man he hopes he can be…? Have you seen this show before?

 

The State: August

A powerful new four-part drama from renowned writer/director Peter Kosminsky. A compelling, fictional story based on extensive research and first-hand accounts, The State (4x60’) follows the experiences of four British men and women who have left their lives behind to join ISIS in Raqqah, Syria. In an unflinching depiction of the realities of life under ISIS, The State provides a deeply authentic and timely drama through which we are able to explore and confront one of the most important issues of our time.

 

Valkyrien: Walter Presents - August

Perhaps the most hotly anticipated series to come out of Norway, Valkyrien is urgent, topical and unlike any other Scandinavian noir. When the hospital gives up on saving his dying wife, Ravn (Sven Nordin), a respected top surgeon, takes matters into his own hands. With the help of his slightly unhinged former patient, Leif (Pål Sverre Hagen), Ravn opens an illegal clinic in a disused war bunker deep below Oslo’s Valkyrien underground station. Here he desperately and secretly tries to cure his now comatose wife, which he finances by treating a growing number of patients — from criminal gang lords to refugees — who can’t or won’t seek traditional medical help. In this age of political uncertainty and social unrest, Valkyrien couldn’t be more timely.

 

The Windsors: July

The Windsors have once again agreed to appear in a frank and candid fly on the wall documentary series celebrating their off duty roles away from the public eye…*Or rather, the satirical comedy soap opera lampooning the lives of our much loved royal family is returning to Channel 4. Prince Harry’s girlfriend Meghan Markle (Kathryn Drysdale) will appear in the new series and Harry Enfield (Prince Charles), Haydn Gwynne (Camilla) Morgana Robinson (Pippa), Louise Ford (Kate), Hugh Skinner (Wills), Richard Goulding (Harry), Katy Wix, (Fergie), Ellie White, (Beatrice), Celeste Dring (Eugenie), Tim Wallers (Prince Andrew), Matthew Cottle (Prince Edward) and Vicki Pepperdine (Princess Anne) will all return for series 2.