Sitcom pilot written by Richard Herring.

The show, set in pre-revolutionary Russia, will aim to satirise modern Britain - highlighting the similarities between then and the current day. Rupert Murdoch, The Banks, The Royals, David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks are all said to be targets of the comedy.

Ra-Ra Rasputin is set in "a time with uncanny parallels to today," with "the super-rich partying their way to disaster, whilst the poor starve". The show features corrupt newspaper bosses and police chiefs, aristocratic public school educated politicians who have an arrogant disregard for the people they rule over, greedy bankers and a benign but out-of-touch and superstitious monarchy.

Herring says: "Throw into the mix the mysterious Holy Man, Grigori Rasputin (his friends call him Ra-Ra), who rises from the faceless masses to superstardom celebrity, all thanks to his uncanny healing abilities and his previously uncredited invention of Europop. The ghost of Rasputin rises to give an unreliable memoir of his life, but one which holds up a mirror to our own corrupt culture - all to a thumping disco beat. Because if you're going to dance into the abyss, you might as well do so in glittery platform boots.... oh these Russians. He was the lover of the Russian Queen and remember in 1916 it wasn't so easy to shag a member of the royal family."

Produced by Avalon Television.

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