Some of Britain’s top comedy talent have created four new short films which have been commissioned by BBC Two and will premiere on BBC iPlayer on Saturday 12th May.
In Sara Pascoe’s film, Sara Pascoe vs Monogamy, the award-winning comedian, writer and actor takes on history, heartache and her mother.
Produced by Ali Marlow and executive produced by Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Sara Pascoe and Miles Ketley the short begins with the bold statement that Sara ‘doesn’t think human beings are meant to be monogamous’ and descends into bad best man speeches, bad sex Victorians and sperm wars.
Sara delves into why ‘screwing around’ isn’t a male prerogative and why jazz makes her skin crawl. Speaking about the new short, Sara says “I feel so lucky to have been given an opportunity to use animation, actors and Robbie Williams impersonators to develop the kind of thing I talk about in my stand up shows. I’m really excited for people to see it.”
Tim Key’s film, Wonderdate, is a filmic offshoot of his award-winning stage show and has been executive produced by Jack and Harry Williams (The Missing, Liar).
It’s the tale of a boy dazzling a girl with the perfect first date and then having his dreams hosed down by reality as he retraces his steps. In spite of myriad texts from him, nothing is coming the other way. His path is riddled with cynics and naysayers, questioning his optimistic outlook on how the date went.
Speaking about the short, Tim said “It was nice to film a small slice of something a bit similar to my stage show. Fortunately Jay was free to direct and Lydia was not averse to producing. And crucially Julie Dray didn’t mind spending three days in London to inject the thing with her unique joie de vive. It’s all a learning curve but I think there’s a bit of charm in it.”
Nick Helm’s film, The Killing Machine, is about boxing, friendship and not letting being shit at something get in the way of following your dreams.
In it, Helm plays happy-go-lucky human car crash Sam Miller, who turns up at the boxing gym with a simple dream: to become a killing machine. And it looks like reluctant, down on his luck personal trainer Donny Day (Lloyd Everitt) is just the man for the job, while fellow trainer Aled (Jon Pointing) doesn’t think he’s up to the challenge.
Speaking about the short, Nick said “This film was a great excuse to work again with Baby Cow and newer talents like Lloyd Everitt, Jonathan Pointing and up-and-coming producer Joe Fraser. I was also able to cut my teeth as an Executive Producer with my own production company Fancy Pants and I look forward to working with everyone again on future projects.”
Spencer Jones writes and stars in the The Mind of Herbert Clunkerdunk, which sees the BAFTA and 2017 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee as the titular Herbert Clunkerdunk – a man constantly interrupted by his own imagination.
Herbert has a big audition. It’s his big chance to finally break out and we follow him as he wakes up, gets ready, gets the all-important call from his agent and begins to learn his lines and rehearse. The episode produced by Tiger Aspect Productions is directed by Jon Riche and also stars Lucy Pearman and Dominic Coleman.
Speaking about the short, Spencer said “I’ve been asked to say something for the press release, so I’ll say this: I’ve tried to make something funny with the BBC’s money. So a massive thank you to them and I hope more people like it than not. I’ll be on Twitter waiting with my family.”