The Friends actor David Schwimmer is to star in a new Channel 4 sitcom about the behind-the-scenes struggles at a failing breakfast television show.
Comparisons to ITV’s failed Daybreak series are likely to be made when Morning Has Broken, which stars Julia Davis as Gail Sinclair, the “Queen of Daytime”, airs.
Co-written by Davis and Nick Mohammed, who plays one of Gail’s fellow breakfast anchors, the sitcom begins with a ratings slide at Good Morning... With Gail Sinclair, causing tensions behind the scenes. Schwimmer plays an American producer brought in to try and save the floundering show.
The American star, who played Ross in Friends, is the second cast member from the hit show to sign up for a British comedy series, following Matt LeBlanc’s role in the BBC’s Episodes.
Ms Davis, who previously created the caustic BBC comedy series Nighty Night, said she is “looking forward to experimenting with friends whose work I love.”
Rachel Springett, Commissioning Editor for Comedy at Channel 4 said: “Julia is undoubtedly one of our most talented comedic writers and actresses and it’s a testament to the quality of her writing that she can attract such a big star. We are thrilled to have David Schwimmer star alongside Julia in this exciting new series for the channel.”
Channel 4 also announced that the stand-up Roisin Conaty is to get her own self-penned sitcom on E4. Conarty plays a hapless 30 year-old trying to muddle through life in GameFace.
The broadcaster may also have found a successor to Peep Show, the sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb, which concludes this year.
Wasted, written by James Lamont and Jon Foster, follows four friends wasting their twenties in a West Country village.
The series, which will also run on E4, puts a rural spin on the scenario of “the very bad things that really good friends do to each other, when they’ve been living in each other’s pockets.”
