Update 5/6: The Kickstarter campaign has been successful. The Mayoress is happening! They are now looking for more pledges to make the show even better. See below for more info.
Jack Dee, Harry Hill and Romesh Ranganathan are some of the names set to appear in a new sitcom written by and starring comedian Brenda Gilhooly.
The Mayoress stars Gilhooly in the titular role. Michelle Collins is also on board, along with Miranda actor James Holmes.
The press release describes it as “A modern Vicar of Dibley meets The Thick of It, set in the fictional borough of Mansford, it merrily satirises the insular mentality of middle England, local politics, daft bureaucracy and the deluded nature of small time power."
Gilhooly, who first made her name playing the comedy character Gayle Tuesday, developed the programme with Objective Productions, but when the BBC turned it down she decided to continue and finance it by crowdfunding. A Kickstarter project to raise £75,000 is launched on May 10.
The experienced comedian, who also wrote for TV Burp says: “So much creative stuff is happening online now there’s no need to wait for the commission from a traditional broadcaster. And you’re never really told why something’s been turned down, in fact I don’t even remember the name of the person who was supposed to have read it! I thought, well I still believe in it, there must be another way.”
“So I showed the script to Jack Dee and Harry Hill and they really liked it. Then brilliantly Romesh and Michelle came on board and the fabulous director David Schneider offered to direct it and Emmy-Award winning writer David Quantick joined too as a script editor. So as a project it really started to gather momentum, which would never have happened if the script was still sitting on someone’s desk. It really is an amazing creative team with outstanding comedy credentials”.
All the cast have agreed to make the show for nothing because they believe in the project. Any money raised is to cover production costs. The intention then is to put the show online for free as an Episode One or standalone comedy short, then sell it as a series to a broadcaster such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.
The Kickstarter campaign will offer various rewards from joke council newsletters and high vis jackets to set visits, an invitation to the premiere and an executive producer credit.
“It’s empowering”, says Gilhooly. “Viewing habits are changing and with the social media revolution taking place, we believe we can now make the quality show we want to, funded entirely by the comedy fans who want it. Crowdfunding is a really exciting way to make innovative new comedy”
This campaign follows Richard Herring's recent successful campaign to raise £100,000 to film his sketch series, As It Occurs To Me.
More info about pledging here.
