Sky Arts to broadcast 12 Christmas specials
- Sky Arts is making 12 festive shorts
- Stars include Pappy's, Nish Kumar, Limmy and The Horne Section
- Will be shown on TV over the festive season
Sky is working with up-and-coming comic actors and comedians to produce twelve short festive comedy specials.
Sky Comedy Christmas Shorts, which will be shown on Sky Arts this December, follow on from the network's Little Crackers strand.
Scottish star Limmy, stand-up comedian Nish Kumar, sketch group Pappy's, musical group The Horne Section and double act Twisted Loaf are amongst those creating an episode for the series.
The full line-up is as follows:
Comedy from Alex Horne and his band. They welcome viewers into the home they share for their intimate annual Christmas gathering. Glimpse the cloying inner sanctum of a musical quasi-family, do your best to enjoy their folksy festive singalong with their glamorous guest-star Sumudu, and bask in the unnatural warmth of six men who spend too much time in each others' company.
Gein's Family Giftshop's Christmas
Comedy from dark sketch group Gein's Family Giftshop. Housemates Kath, Jim and Ed are all preparing for Christmas. Ed believes in Santa wholeheartedly and Kath and Jim are frankly too scared to tell him the truth. However this year, Ed inadvertently finds out when he meets 'Santa' in a garden centre and is told in no uncertain terms that he isn't real. Ed's world is turned upside down and he starts to question everything he's been told. Guest starring Justin Moorhouse.
Comedy from character actor Joseph Morpurgo. Mum and Dad are filming Thomas' school Nativity. We see the action play out through the camcorder, inadvertently picking up the narration from the audience. Also starring Mike Wozniak and Cariad Lloyd.
Comedy from Scottish star Limmy, real name Brian Limond. Limmy's lonely this Christmas but he's got some crackers to get you through the festive season! A unique selection of comic characters, shorts, sketches and daft wee ideas.
A short by rising circuit star Lolly Adefope. Home for Christmas and working in her local shopping centre's Christmas Grotto as an elf, Lolly realises that she has to take unconventional action, in order to save Christmas. Also stars Natasia Demetriou, Alistair Green, Jamie Demetriou, Margaret Cabourn-Smith and Ellie White.
Newsjack host Nish Kumar gets his own festive short. It's the Christmas Eve ritual - same mates, same pub, year in year out. Except exactly a year ago things were looking rosy for Nish and he wasn't afraid to let people know about it. Fast forward to Christmas 2015 and it's all gone horribly wrong. As Nish makes his way to the pub, memories of his behaviour this time last year are coming back to haunt him... Also stars Aisling Bea, Ed Gamble and Tom Neenan.
Sketch trio Pappy's turn their hand to a festive comedy. When Pappy's car breaks down on the way home from a gig on Christmas Eve, the hapless trio are left to contemplate their fate with just an empty Pringles tube and one another for company. If only they hadn't upset the headliner Dara O Briain (who appears as himself) so much he might have offered them a lift home. Instead thoughts turn to the real meaning of Christmas and how good life would be if only they could create the next John Lewis commercial.
Australian comedy star, and the winner of this year's Edinburgh Comedy Award, Sam Simmons, presents a crackers story. Christmas is no laughing matter in the Christmas cracker joke-writing room. Sam and his crack team have to write jokes to make the whole family laugh and their deadline is looming. It's a highly stressful environment where heads will roll if the jokes don't work on the focus group of bored kids and unimpressed, paper-hat wearing nanas. Also stars Bridget Christie, Matt King, Kieran Hodgson and Mike Wilmot.
A short from up-and-coming performer Spencer Jones. It's Christmas eve and Dad is in charge this year, but just when he thinks he's got everything in hand, his car containing his Christmas shopping is nicked. He's got seven minutes till the local hardware shop closes. What could possibly go wrong?
Stand-up Tez Ilyas presents a different take on Christmas. Terry and his younger brother Abid debate the notion of Christmas-ing up their shisha café. But grumpy Terry fights Abid's festive fervour after little cousin Sofia kiboshes the spirit of secret Santa. The 12 days of Christmas become 'the 12 Bugbears of Christmas' when Terry reveals his distaste for the true love's choice of feathered gifts. Also stars Guz Khan and Bhavna Limbachia.
Comedy from Edinburgh Fringe clown Trygve Wakenshaw. Cliftracts Penktinkerton is a man who will go to great lengths to ensure he delivers his family the most authentic Christmas ever. And this year he doesn't disappoint.
A short from sketch duo Twisted Loaf, aka Libby Northedge and Nina Smith. Church helpers Nina and Libby are tasked with preparing the church for the Christmas Eve service but their last-minute attempts to find a tree, three kings and a baby Jesus end in disaster. Can they turn it around in time for the service?