Sci-Fi Bulletin: Exploring the Universes of SF, Fantasy, Horror and Spy-fi!

UKTV’s Dave has commissioned a new fantasy series, Zapped, which starts filming shortly for transmission in the autumn.

The comedy comes from Baby Cow Productions, and stars James Buckley (The Inbetweeners), Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Sharon Rooney (My Mad Fat Diary), Ken Collard (Cuckoo) and Louis Emerick (Benidorm) plus a guest appearance from Steve Coogan, who will also executive produce the show.

Brian Weaver (Buckley), an online data marketing assistant (even he doesn’t know what that is) finds himself abruptly transported to a parallel world. Fortunately, there’s a pub. There he meets the owner, Herman (a former warrior; Emerick) plus a handful of regulars: Barbara (a hopeless soothsayer; Rooney), Steg (an armchair revolutionary; Collard) and Howell (a brain-fried Wizard; Kaye). Brian is desperate to get home, and his new acquaintances are no help at all. Instead he finds himself being sucked into a world he doesn’t understand, full of psychopathic Fairies, Shell Men, seductive Demi-Fins, vicious Throcks and the frighteningly unpredictable side-effects of Howell’s magical powers. It’s even worse than being an online data marketing assistant.

The series is written by is Dan Gaster, Will Ing and Paul Powell with Dave Lambert directing.

According to Coogan, “Zapped is fantasy, heightened reality and lots of escapism, with one foot firmly in the real world. It has all the requisite elements to take the audience on a journey to this slightly mad world; from wizards and spells to mermaids, psychopathic fairies, smartphones and then back to the boring office job. We have a great cast on board, led by the brilliant James Buckley. We’re excited to be working with UKTV on another original comedy series and we feel this is a great example of Baby Cow at its best.”