Benidorm creator pens sitcom about chaos-prone spa boss

Benidorm creator Derren Litten is to write a new comedy series for Sky Living.

The Spa will star Rebecca Front as an ‘ambitious but misguided manageress, whose tactless approach and initiatives have a habit of plunging the spa into utter chaos’.

Litten himself will have a role as a wheelchair-bound fitness instructor, while the ensemble cast also incldes Tim Healy as a handyman and Debbie Chazen, as a hippie therapist.

The series, set in Hertfordshire, will air later in the year and heralds a move into new comedy for Sky Living.

The channel is also airing the sitcom Gates, about parents dropping their children off at school and starring Sue Johnston, Tom Ellis and Joanna Page. With Jennifer Saunders as script editor, the show was originally commissioned for Sky One.

Together with today’s earlier announcement of new shows for Sky Arts, it means the broadcaster is now producing home-grown comedy across its network of channels.

Sky’s head of comedy, Lucy Lumsden, said: ‘Following our recent comedy successes including Stella, Spy and Trollied, it's an extremely exciting time for Sky. This latest wave of announcements today across Sky Arts and Sky Living demonstrate that we are hungry to work with the best talent at home and abroad and expand our ambitions for comedy across our other channels.’

Published: 10 May 2012