Martin Freeman set to star in new TV comedy | Pilot for Breeders has been filmed

Martin Freeman set to star in new TV comedy

Pilot for Breeders has been filmed

Martin Freeman is set to star in his first TV comedy in almost a decade.

The Office and Black Panther star has shot a pilot for the BBC and FX network in the US with Michael Gambon and Uncle's Daisy Haggard.

Breeders is written by Simon Blackwell, creator of Back and a writer on The Thick of It and Veep, and is directed by The Inbetweeners' Ben Palmer.

The plot remains unknown but was originated by Freeman.

'I've got a comedy thing in the pipeline that I'm helping to create' he told Jocks and Nerds magazine last year. 'Based on a dream I had, actually. It was sort of true, true about the way I feel about something. So I’m getting together with a very good writer and a very good director and we’re hammering that out at the moment.’

Shot in London in January, with locations including a tapas restaurant in Twickenham, the pilot will not be broadcast.

If Breeders goes to series, it will be Sherlock star Freeman's first recurring role on a British TV comedy since the 2009 ITV bodyswap saga Boy Meets Girl, although he appeared in Simon Amstell's one-off mockumentary Carnage last year.

While starring in and narrating the US comedy-drama Fargo, he has also had cameos in Toast of London and Brian Pern. And his next film is Ode To Joy, a comedy about a man who suffers acute narcolepsy whenever he's happy from Modern Family director Jason Winer.

Freeman previously appeared with Gambon in the 2007 rom-com The Good Night and alongside Haggard in the 2011 flop Swinging with the Finkels.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 2 Mar 2018

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