ITV hope for a Great Night Out

ITV1 is to air a post watershed comedy drama starring Waterloo Road’s Will Ash, Brookside’s Ricky Tomlinson, Mrs Brown’s Boys’ Susie Blake and Coronation Street’s Lee Boardman.

The six part series has been filmed on location in London and Stockport and due to air from early 2013. Each hour long episode follows four mid-thirties mates as they enjoy a weekly boys’ get-together in Stockport. As they help each other through romantic, work and family crises, they invariably create much bigger problems to solve.

Executive Producer Jimmy Mulville says, “I hope we have done justice to the brilliant scripts and wonderful cast. This is a laugh out loud comedy about friendship, love and Stockport!”

The series was written and created by Mark Bussell and Justin Sbresni (The Worst Week OfMy Life) with Jonathan Harvey (Coronation Street) and Steve Turner (Jeopardy).

“Great Night Out is a series about the history people have with each other, about long-standing friendship. The relationships needed to be believable and truthful on the screen. The first day of filming is always a bit like the first day of school, which is what an actor’s life is all about – it happens whenever you start a new job. I’m quite envious of the characters as I’m not in touch with anyone I was at school with. But all of us have friendships where you know each other incredibly well and can get really irritated with each other but you are forgiven, just like in a family.” Adds actor Lee Boardman.

The Hat Trick Production airs on ITV1 early next year.