Julia Davis

Julia Davis stars alongside Olivia Colman and Sharon Horgan in a spoof of Latin American telenovelas from Peep Show writers Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong. Sending up a genre that's already a send-up of itself is a tough ask, but they pull it off.

Fans of Nighty Night, Julia Davis#s arch black comedy about a demented beauty parlour owner, will be cheered to see her name on both acting and writing credits for Hunderby, a new eight-parter that's tough to categorise. Borrowing heavily from the plot of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca, it's all shipwrecks, candles, parsimonious parsons and jealous housekeepers; pornographic language dressed up in period costume. In a word, odd.

Comedy fans, prepare to be excited. This new pilot has impeccable pedigree, being written by Peep Show's Sam Bain and Jesse Armstrong and starring three of our funniest actresses: Olivia Colman (Rev.), Julia Davis (Nighty Night) and Sharon Horgan (Pulling). It's a soapy spoof melodrama - think Dallas done by French and Saunders - about a rich, dysfunctional mining dynasty. Cue face-slapping, bitching and deliberately clumsy exposition.

Olivia Colman: 'I like that she's not quite right'

Olivia Colman teams up with Julia Davis and Sharon Horgan for Bad Sugar, a wickedly funny new black comedy about a dysfunctional mining dynasty from the writers of Peep Show.

Julia Davis interview

Nighty Night creator Julia Davis tells Metro about the inspiration behind her characters, working with Rob Brydon and her new Sky Atlantic sitcom Hunderby.

Julia Davis: laughing in the dark

Julia Davis is famous for creating some of the most uncomfortably bleak comedies of recent times. Now the star of Nighty Night is turning her dark powers to period drama in her new series Hunderby.

It's a good time for female-led comedy

Sharon Horgan and Julia Davis are among those with new series coming to screen - but why are women still so badly represented on shows such as Mock the Week?

Could Lizzie and Sarah make a comeback?

Julia Davis is eager to revive her axed comedy Lizzie And Sarah. 'I'd happily explore more,' she said. 'We have a lot more ideas and I would love to work with Sarah again.'

As the ticker tape settles over in the ITV studios, a drama will begin on Channel 4 that is so closely modelled on The X Factor that there is no doubting that its scheduling directly after this year's grand final was a deliberate one.

Black Mirror's second episode, 15 Million Merits, is co-written by Charlie Brooker's wife Konnie Huq, who presented X Factor companion show The Xtra Factor in 2010.

Brooker abandoned his TV criticism column in The Guardian midway through his wife's stint on the ITV2 show, prompting many to speculate that he felt his partiality had been compromised by Huq's involvement in the franchise. The plot thickens.
Like The National Anthem, the first in the Black Mirror series, 15 Million Merits' plot is not its strongest point. But the fine performances from its stars - who include Julia Davis and Rupert Everett - more than make up for some weak links in the narrative.

And in terms of capturing the terrifying, oppressive nature of The X Factor, Brooker has it spot on with his barely fictitious show Hot Shot, which plucks ordinary folk from their dystopian drudgery and bombards them with stardom.

For X Factor fans, it will serve as the perfect way to reflect on what has been a more sinister and contrived series than any other.
It is dark and disturbing, but is it any darker and more disturbing than the real X Factor we know and love to hate?