Sky Atlantic commissions comedy Hunderby

Writer and performer Julia Davis is to join Sky Atlantic in a new project described as a ‘black comedy’. Hunderby has been picked up for seven half-hour episodes by the channel.

The latest Sky commission is Julia Davis’ first project since since the award-winning Nighty Night. Davis’s inimitable style of black comedy has set her apart from her contemporaries Sky state and the broadcaster believes she is one of the most unique talents around.

The seven episodes of Hunderby will be set in the 1800s which features Helene, a shipwreck survivor washed ashore near a small English village. There, she is swept off her feet by widowed pastor Edmund and the two soon marry, the puritanical Edmund believing his bride to be untouched by another man. But she has a history, a dark past that she cannot escape.

As Helene moves into Edmund’s home, she falls under the watchful eye of housekeeper Dorothy who is more than a little involved in her master’s life, and quite obsessed with his dead first wife, Arabelle – to whom Helene simply does not compare. While Helene battles to keep her past a secret, she must navigate Dorothy’s devious scheming, her husband’s harsh critique and a potential new love interest.

Davis said of the new comedy, “I’m so excited to be making a series for Sky Atlantic HD, a channel that has so many of my favourite shows from around the world. It’s great to be working with Stuart Murphy and Lucy Lumsden again.”

In a gothic setting populated by the requisite cast of fiends, physicians, hunchbacks, wastrels, maids, crones, and a puppy called Wilfred, Hunderby Sky hopes will ooze with the dark and absurd humour.

Naomi Gibney, Acting Channel Director, Sky Atlantic said: “Sky Atlantic is committed to creating smart and engaging British comedy that will resonate with our target audience. Together with Kathy Burke’s Walking and Talking, Hunderby is a key title in our stellar comedy line-up.”

The series will air on Sky Atlantic in the summer of 2012.