ITV2 orders new sitcom Timewasters

Wednesday 24th August 2016, 11:29am

Timewasters. Image shows from L to R: Nick (Daniel Lawrence Taylor), Lauren (Adelayo Adedayo), Horace (Samson Kayo), Jason (Kadiff Kirwan). Copyright: Big Talk Productions

ITV2 has commissioned Timewasters, a new sitcom about a struggling four-piece South London jazz band who travel back in time to the 1920s.

The comedy has been created by Uncle and Cockroaches star Daniel Lawrence Taylor.

The six part series sees the jazz band travel back in time via a urine-sodden lift in a dilapidated block of flats. Stuck in the past after their 'time machine' is destroyed, the gang decide to explore, before quickly discovering that being young and black in the Jazz Age is a lot less genteel and a lot more shady than Downton Abbey had led them to believe.

Aided and abetted by a pair of oddball twins and some 1920s luminaries, the band are forced to navigate the parties and pitfalls of the Roaring Twenties while searching for a way back home. All the while, not missing the opportunity to introduce the Bright Young Things to some of the twenty-first century's finest tunes.

The key roles will be played by Daniel Lawrence Taylor, Kadiff Kirwan (Chewing Gum), Adelayo Adedayo (Some Girls) and Samson Kayo (Youngers).

Guest stars will include Kevin Eldon, who plays television inventor John Logie Baird.

Daniel Lawrence Taylor says of his new show: "You don't see that many black people in period dramas, or in time machines, so I thought I'd try to write about both. There are so many great people on board and I can't wait to get started."

Rosemary Newell from ITV comments: "We're really excited to be bringing a truly original and brand new scripted comedy to ITV2. Daniel Lawrence Taylor is a real shining talent and Timewasters is perfectly pitched at our key demographic of young adults."

Kenton Allen from production company Big Talk adds: "Daniel Lawrence Taylor's audacious idea of four time-travelling dudes from South London going 'black to the future' has been a joy to make from start to finish. It's a brilliant concept with a cracking cast bringing Daniel's script to life. As an exciting new sitcom writer/performer DLT has a very promising future via his whip smart exploration of what would happen if we could re-visit the past."

Saskia Schuster, who commissioned the show, concludes: "Timewasters is a very funny, smart new comedy with a brilliant cast. And who knew you could travel back in time via a lift in a South London block of flats?"

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