Sky Arts embraces the silence for a physical comedy season, starring a host of British comedy stars

This autumn, Sky Arts airs a Physical Comedy strand featuring well-known and up-and-coming comedy stars all celebrating this art form with gleeful abandon. Kim Cattrall, Kevin Eldon, Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves), Johnny Vegas, Frank Skinner, Seann Walsh, Sam Simmons, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Marek Larwood, Mike Wozniak and Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award winners John Kearns and Phil Burgers (aka Dr Brown) and others will star across four new comedies for the channel.

Ruby Robinson (1 x 30 minutes, King Bert Productions) is a silent comedy starring Kim Cattrall. Cattrall plays Ruby, who lives in a huge, isolated and dilapidated house with a troupe of unusual acrobat helpers that she has come to take for granted. She yearns for the company of her nephew and his family but a visit from them spells trouble for Ruby, who comes to learn to appreciate that the people who truly love her are right under her nose. Ruby Robinson features some seemingly impossible physical feats and tells an unusual comic morality tale. It was written by Mike Wozniak who plays the scheming nephew; his sadistic wife is played by Cariad Lloyd.

Three Kinds of Stupid (1 x 30 minutes, Little Comet) is a three stooges style physical comedy starring Seann Walsh, Marek Larwood and Jocelyn Jee Esien, written by Chris Reddy. It follows the misadventures of three community police officers who befriend a blind man, played by Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves). Things go badly wrong when one of the gang accidentally kills the blind mans guide dog with a prawn sandwich. Unable to tell him about the tragedy, they go to elaborate ends to convince him his dog is still alive and well.

Blending Oceans 11 with Dumb and Dumber, Rotters (1 x 30 minutes, Eleven Film) follows a blundering gang of idiots who attempt to rob an auction house owned by an antiques dealer, played by Frank Skinner. Continually stepping on each others toes, the motley crew - played by Phil Burgers (aka 2013 Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award winner Dr Brown), John Kearns, Sam Simmons, Lolly Adefope and Daniel Simonsen - battle against a dazzling array of security devices, a meddlesome traffic warden played by Pat Cahill and their own incompetence in this action-packed slapstick riot of a show.

Brilliantman! (1 x 30 minutes, What Larks Productions), pictured, is written by and stars Kevin Eldon as wannabe suburban superhero in this dialogue-free physical comedy. Also featuring Johnny Vegas, who plays his sour-tempered landlady, Mrs. Wardle, it follows the adventures of humble council worker Ian Hedge who, having assumed his secret identity as Brilliantman, tangles with a variety of local characters including a mugger, a burglar and a potentially murderous parrot. With the best intentions in the world, what our caped crusader lacks in dynamism, he more than makes up for with sheer incompetence.

Philip Edgar-Jones, Director, Sky Arts commented: There's no finer sight in life than someone bumping into something. This was the starting point for our brand new physical comedy season on Sky Arts. Luckily the brilliant comic talent who signed up to make four top notch, one-offs all had a rather more sophisticated view of what a silent comedy should be. We are thrilled that Frank Skinner, Vic Reeves, Johnny Vegas, Kevin Eldon, Seann Walsh and Kim Cattrall (amongst a host of others) will be entertaining our equally sophisticated customers with their versions of knockabout fun.

A selection of the comedies will be screened at the Cat Laughs Comedy Festival in Kilkenny next month, along with a post-screening Q&A with Johnny Vegas, Kevin Eldon, John Kearns and Pat Cahill.

For further information, please contact:

Sky

Ffion Williams

PR Manager, Sky Arts

ffion.williams@bskyb.com

020 7032 3071

For images, please go to Imagenet or email Stills@bskyb.com

Notes To Editors

About Sky

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