Timoy Spall to take the lead in Sky s Fungus the Bogeyman is Christmas

Sky 1 today announces that Timothy Spall and Victoria Wood will lead an all-star cast in festive four part drama Fungus the Bogeyman, which starts production this week.

Written by Tom MacRae (Threesome) and inspired by Raymond Briggs' classic family story, Fungus the Bogeyman will star Timothy Spall in the title role, who is also soon to be seen in Sky Living's new supernatural drama The Enfield Haunting. Starring alongside him is Bafta winning actress and comedian Victoria Wood (Housewife, 49), Keeley Hawes (The Casual Vacancy, Line of Duty), and Marc Warren (The Musketeers, Mad Dogs.)

Also confirmed is Andy Serkis as the Narrator (Lord of the Rings, Rise of the Planet of the Apes),

Joanna Scanlan (The Thick of it) as Fungus's beloved Bogeywife Mildrew, and Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones) as the bogeyhunter'.

Timothy Spall commented: Fungus has brought joy to generations of children and I am so thrilled to be playing such a beloved character. It's great to be working with Sky again and the skilled folk at Imaginarium to bring Fungus the Bogeyman out of the pages of Raymond Brigg's book and on to the small screen this Christmas.

Viewers are invited into a wondrous world where Fungus goes about his business menacing and frightening those on the surface (the Dry Cleaners ) as Bogeymen do and have always done. Drawn from the character of Raymond Briggs' book, Fungus is a family (bogey) man who has lived underground for hundreds of years, never questioning his own existence until now. Over the course of the series viewers will follow Fungus and his son Mould's journey through the maze of life on the surface, while also discovering the highs and lows of their father and son relationship.

Victoria Wood plays Eve, an earthy, eccentric Dry Cleaner living in the human inhabited town of Daventry. She's warm, astute and has an open door policy to anyone in need but behind the smile there is more to Eve than meets the eye.

Keeley Hawes and Marc Warren play Wendy and Daryl Snow, also drycleaners who live on the surface with their daughter Lucy. Whilst Wendy is trying to support the family, Daryl is unemployed and if only he can admit it, a little emasculated. He loves life and a laugh but loathes his hitherto legal career.

The 4 x 60 series will be produced by Imaginarium Studios, in partnership with Double Negatives TV department, DNeg TV and will comprise both live action and animated elements to bring the much-loved characters from the classic book to life. International distribution will be handled by Sky Vision.

The series Executive Producers are Chloe Sizer and Jonathan Cavendish for Imaginarium Studios, and Cameron Roach for Sky. The series will be produced by John Chapman (The Lost Prince, Just William) and directed by Catherine Morshead (Downton Abbey, Shameless.)

For further information please contact:

Ffion Williams, PR Manager

T: 07813344800

E: Ffion.Williams@bskyb.com

Charlotte Jordan, Publicist

T: 07715799962

E: charlotte.jordan@bskyb.com

About Sky:

Sky is Europes leading entertainment company. The group serves 21 million customers across five countries: Italy, Germany, Austria, the UK and Ireland. We offer the best and broadest range of content, deliver market-leading customer service and use innovative new technology to give customers a better TV experience, whenever and wherever they choose.

Sky has annual revenues of over £11 billion and is Europes leading investor in television content with a combined programming budget of over £4.6 billion. The company employs 31,000 people and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (SKY).

For more information visit www.sky.com/corporate.

About The Imaginarium:

The Imaginarium is a unique combination of Motion Capture studio and production company, combining the latest technology with the highest standards of execution to create compelling next-generation storytelling capability in film, television, video games and digital applications.

Founded in 2011 by Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish, and based at Ealing Studios London, The Imaginarium has brought together some of the worlds leading Performance Capture and Visual Effects artists to provide the highest level of character creation and storytelling.

The Imaginarium also provides its services and knowhow to some of the worlds most prolific content creators on projects ranging from video games to feature films and is currently producing Jungle Book: Origins for Warner Brothers.

LINK:	https://corporate.sky.com/media-centre/news-page/2015/timothy-spall-to...
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