Sky Studios Developing Medieval Essex Comedy ‘Welcome To England’ From ‘The Great’ Writer Ava Pickett & Big Talk

EXCLUSIVE: Sky Studios has put in development a comedy series about medieval Essex from The Great writer Ava Pickett and Big Talk Studios.

Pickett, who is also penning the BBC’s Prêt-à-Porter adaptation, is behind Welcome to England, which we have learned is in early-stage development with The Outlaws maker Big Talk for Sky Studios.

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Described as “The Great meets Shameless with a dash of Game Of Thrones,” Welcome to England is set in medieval Essex in the 10th century. Surrounded by war and bloodshed, the comedy focuses on a royal family including Evelyn, whose psychopathic and infuriating 15-year-old brother Aethelred has just become king.

The project is in its early stages and hasn’t yet been greenlit or set cast.

Sky Studios recently restructured scripted, bringing comedy and drama together under the leadership of Director of Original Series, UK and Ireland, Meghan Lyvers, following the departure of long-serving comedy commissioner Jon Mountague.

Big Talk last made Living the Dream for Sky, a 2017 comedy-drama about a family moving from Yorkshire to Florida starring Philip Glenister and Lesley Sharp. It was also behind Sky pilot Peacock, about a gym instructor, which ended up as a BBC series helmed by People Just Do Nothing’s Allan Mustafa. Big Talk is also currently working on a thriller about a drug-smuggling submarine, a genre-bending BBC comedy about a detective starring David Mitchell and a third season of Amazon Prime Video and BBC One’s The Outlaws.

Pickett is an up-and-coming British scribe who wrote on Hulu and Channel 4’s recently-canceled The Great and is lead writer on Prêt-à-Porter, the BBC’s TV adaptation of the 1994 Miramax movie.

Big Talk and Sky Studios declined to comment on Welcome to England.

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