Category: BBC
THREE
Date: 31.05.2005
Printable version
Filming has begun on Funland,
a twisted comic thriller for BBC THREE with an outstanding ensemble
cast.
Funland is the hotly anticipated collaboration between
Bafta award-winning EastEnders writer Simon Ashdown
and Jeremy Dyson, multi-award winning writer of The
League of Gentlemen.
Introducing hot new talent Daniel Mays
(Vera Drake) as the charismatic young hero Carter Krantz, the cast for
Funland also includes Kris Marshall (My Family and
My Life in Film); Sarah Smart (At Home With The Braithwates);
Ian Puleston-Davies from the hit BBC THREE drama, Conviction;
and Coronation Street's Roy Barraclough.
Carter arrives in Blackpool naked and strangely alone
despite being surrounded by holidaymakers. Without a penny to his name
and carrying only a fragment of paper containing two mysterious words,
Carter finds himself unknowingly at the beginning of a voyage of self-discovery.
As he tries to find out the meaning of these two words,
he is sucked into the most disturbing of mysteries and meets the intriguing
array of characters who lie behind Blackpool's funhouse doors. Each
has something to hide, even if they do not know it yet!
Kris Marshall plays the hapless Dudley Sutton. At his
side, but who knows for how long, is his wife Lola (Sarah Smart), looking
forward to their dirty weekend.
Ian Puleston-Davies is Shirley Woolf, a borderline psycho
trapped by the demons of his past and caught between two formidable
women: his mother, the evil Mercy (Judy Parfitt, Girl
With A Pearl Earring), Blackpool's manipulative, powerful, and awesome
matriarch; and his foolhardy wife Connie (Frances Barber,
Real Women).
Roy Barraclough plays the corrupt town mayor and Mark
Gatiss (The League of Gentlemen) plays the bizarre and haughty
repressed taxidermist Ambrose Chapfel.
Other cast include: Kevin Eldon (Nighty
Night); Simon Greenall (Alan Partridge); Beth
Cordingly (The Bill);Kenny Doughty (Canterbury
Tales);Philip Jackson (Brassed Off, Von Trapped); Shaun
Williamson (EastEnders); Emily Aston (Conviction);
and Paul Courtenay-Hyu (Sweet and Sour Comedy).
Funland is set to air on BBC THREE in the autumn. It
will launch with a double-length 60 minute special, followed by ten
half-hour episodes.
BBC's Editor of Comedy, and Executive Producer of Funland,
Kenton Allen, said: "Funland takes you to the deep black heart that
beats at the core of every English seaside town, bringing the saucy
seaside postcard screaming into the twenty-first century.
"If I had to describe it, I would say Funland was
the bastard son of The League of Gentlemen and EastEnders after a heavy
night on the town with Twin Peaks. It's a hard-boiled comedy like you've
never seen before."
Funland will be produced by BBC Comedy - North.
The
producer is Sanne Wohlenberg (Messiah, Murphy's Law, Lucky Jim) and
the Executive Producer is Kenton Allen.
The directors are Dearbhla Walsh (Shameless), Susan Tully (55 Degrees North) and Brian Kirk (Murphy's Law).
The casting
director is Rachel Freck (The Office, Green Wing, Casanova).
Notes to Editors
BBC THREE recently received 24 Bafta and RTS nominations,
winning two Bafta Awards for Little Britain and two RTS Awards for Nighty
Night.
The multi-genre channel, which is aimed at 25 to 34-year-
olds, offers quality comedy, entertainment, factual programmes and drama.
It aims to be the most innovative digital channel in the UK, and reaches
nearly nine million viewers a week (ahead of E4 and Sky One, and second
only to ITV2).
Current highlights include Dr. Tanya's House Of Tiny
Tearaways (running every night in May); The Week The Women Went, in
August; and a number of self-help or therapy programmes in the autumn,
following last year's focus on parenting.
A second series of Bodies is currently in production,
and I'm With Stupid has just been commissioned for a six-part series
from BBC Comedy - North in Manchester.
The Best of Three Multiscreen, a ground-breaking complementary
application for satellite viewers, is currently being trialled on Sunday
nights at 9.00pm via the red button.
BBC Comedy - North was set up in October 2003 to develop
and nurture the next generation of comedy talent in the North of England.
BBC THREE has also commissioned BBC Comedy - North to
make a second series of the popular comedy Ideal starring Johnny Vegas,
and a series of I'm With Stupid has also been commissioned following
the recent pilot.
Both series will go into production later this year
for transmission in early 2006.
Two new comedy pilots for BBC THREE will also go into
production later this year.
