Frankie Boyle to star in wildlife documentary sitcom pilot

Wednesday 16th April 2014, 12:10pm

The Boyle Variety Performance. Frankie Boyle. Copyright: Zeppotron

Frankie Boyle has signed up to take part in a new TV sitcom project.

Wild Life is a pilot about a five-person documentary crew filming a nature programme on location in Scandinavia.

The blurb for the show explains: "As if capturing footage of the rare Eurasian wolf in the forests of Bergslagen, Sweden, isn't difficult enough, they also have to film a 'making-of' featurette and refrain from killing each other."

Boyle will take part in a read-through alongside fellow stand-up comedians Miles Jupp, Isy Suttie, Craig Campbell and Adam Hess. Suttie's acting CV includes Whites and Peep Show, whilst Jupp has starred in shows like Rev and will soon appear in his own TV sitcom, In And Out Of The Kitchen.

Meanwhile, Wild Life will be the first major acting job for both up-and-coming stand-up Adam Hess, and Craig Campbell, the UK-based Canadian comic who has previously supported Frankie Boyle on tour.

Boyle will play the part of Phil, the neurotic, ex-BBC boss of the production company who's on the verge of a divorce and would rather be safely indoors. Jupp and Campbell play the two incompatible cameramen, Powell and Malcolm, the former a cocksure self-publicist who's in a viral clip on YouTube, the latter a Canadian hippie who communes with the earth. Suttie plays Mags, the production manager who holds everything together, with Hess taking on the role the intern, Ben.

Wild Life has been written by Andrew Collins, with Simon Day. The duo have previously worked together to create Grass, the 2003 sitcom based around Day's Fast Show character Billy Bleach. More recently, they collaborated on the script for an episode of Sky Atlantic's Common Ground, in which Day played personal trainer Colin Reed.

Andrew Collins told BCG: "I've been developing this idea for the last couple of years at Avalon, and it's thrilling to be 'putting it on its feet', as they say, with a cast of this calibre. Also, great to be working with Simon Day again, as it's ten years since Grass aired on BBC Two. Maybe they'll repeat it."

Wild Life is being developed by producers at Avalon Television, the production company that makes shows including Lee Mack's Not Going Out, the sitcom on which Collins worked on the first four series of.

Script read-throughs are designed to test formats, scripts and cast chemistry. The read-through for Wild Life will be presented in front of an audience on Friday 25th April at the Tabard Theatre in London. To apply to be in the audience see our free tickets page

Frankie Boyle has previously announced he had retired from stand-up, but has since appeared at the Glasgow Comedy Festival and is supporting Glenn Wool's tour. The controversial comedian has also made moves into writing and acting recently. He has co-created Blocked, a Radio 4 sitcom pilot about a playwright; and will appear in one of the BBC's new iPlayer comedy shorts.

Launching in May, Frankie Boyle And Bob Mortimer's Cookery Show sees Boyle and Shooting Stars comic Bob Mortimer making food in a kitchen.

Boyle, who quit Mock The Week in 2009, continues to write provocative comments on Twitter. On Monday he posted: "I hope there is a special corner of Hell reserved for Michael McIntyre where he is trapped in a tiny room for all eternity, with himself." Last year, Shane Allen, the former head of Channel 4 Comedy and now the BBC's Comedy Commissioner said: "We don't have any control, and nor should we have any control, over what people do in their social media life."

It is unlikely to be known for a while whether Wild Life has been commissioned for a series or not.

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