Cast announced for Channel 4 series This Way Up

Channel 4 has revealed the performers appearing in the series originally announced as Happy AF.

“After years of scripts and projects that never made it to air, this show is a bit of a dream come true, so I really bloody hope you like it. Sharon and I first played sisters in a TV show that got cancelled about eight years ago and we have gone on many drunken nights out across the world together since to stay in character for this project. Channel 4 have supported and backed me in many ways for years now, so I am over the moon to have my little baby live with them and to have it go visit its step-mother Hulu in America too.” – Aisling Bea, writer and star

The new six-part comedy written by and starring, actor and comedian Aisling Bea sees her play Aine, a whip smart English-as-a-foreign language teacher trying to pull her life back together after a “teeny little nervous breakdown“, as her sister Shona, played by Sharon Horgan, worries, not only about her younger sibling, but also about her own life choices.

The language school where Aine teaches brings together a room full of characters also trying to find their own hope, direction and happiness in this messy world.

Joining Bea and Horgan are Aasif Mandvi in the role of Shona’s boyfriend Vish, Tobias Menzies as Richard, father to one of Aine’s students and Indira Varma playing Shona’s colleague and confidante Charlotte.

Other members of the cast include Sorcha Cusack as Aine and Shona’s mother, Chris Geere as Aine’s ex-boyfriend, Freddie, Kadiff Kirwan as Aine’s roommate Bradley, Ricky Grover as Aine’s friend Tom, Ekow Quartey as Aine’s boss James and Pik-Sen Lim, Todor Jordanov, Jassem Mougari, Daniela Spataru as Aine’s TEFL students.

 The series will air in the U.S. on Hulu.

“Already an established stand up and actor, Aisling has delivered the most fantastically funny yet tender, poignant and surprising show in This Way Up and, with Sharon Horgan playing her sister, we get two of the funniest people on the planet putting their own glorious spin on the sibling thing. We love it.” – Fiona McDermott, Head of Comedy at Channel 4