Sky1 Commission WWI Sitcom 'Chickens' From Inbetweeners Actors

Sky1 HD pick-up the period comedy for a December production start after Channel 4 rejected its pilot last year.

By Matt Holmes /

Inbetweeners actors Simon Bird (who plays Will), Joe Thomas (who plays Simon) and Jonny Sweet (who cameod as Dean during the 'Night Out In London' episode) are teaming for a brand new Sky 1 HD sitcom, "Chickens". The period comedy series which they wrote & pitched themselves will follow three young men who are rejected to fight for their country during World War I and must stay at home in a sleepy English village that has become a world of women. George (Thomas) is a conscientious objector, Cecil (Bird) is rejected on health grounds, and Bert (Jonny Sweet) is an amoral philandering scaredicat. Apparently all three of the actors have been friends and writing together since university and they pitched the idea for Chickens to Sky after Channel 4, which launched two of the trio into major stardom with the uber successful Inbetweeners on E4, rejected the pilot that aired on the Comedy Showcase in September 2011, probably because they were unsure about it's period setting. The trio will now write the show ahead of it's December production start where six episodes of 30 minutes in length will be produced, to be broadcasted in the summer of 2013. Here's how Sky 1 put it; "They couldn€™t be more different but in the eyes of their neighbours they€™re all the same: chickens. So in a world of (quite sexy) women, children and the infirm these twenty-something chaps have only each other for company and nothing else in common. The women of the village are bound to treat them with contempt €“ any man worth his salt should be off doing his duty. But with every other man abroad can George, Cecil and Bert claw themselves back into the good books of the ladies on the home front?" "CHICKENS is also about three young men on the wrong side of history. Every day they live in fear of being labeled as cowards, an argument they€™ve already lost in the mere act of still being in England."