Roisin Conaty’s self-penned sitcom GameFace for E4 from Objective Fiction has gone in to production with a stellar cast.
The new 6x30 comedy, due to air on E4 later in the year, sees Conaty play Marcella, an aspiring actress with a distinct world view who despite being ever optimistic can’t quite get her work, family or love life on track.
Alongside Conaty, Pauline McLynn (Father Ted, Shameless) plays Marcella's mum with Francis Magee (Witless, Game of Thrones, Rogue One) as her furious dad and Dylan Edwards (Wasted, Pramface) as wayward brother Billy.
Damien Molony (Crashing, Being Human) plays her long-suffering driving instructor Jon, Nina Toussaint-White (Uncle, Emmerdale) and comedian Caroline Ginty play Lucy and Caroline, Marcella's best friends and flat mates, and Dustin Demri Burns (Cardinal Burns, Pyschobitches) is ex-boyfriend Simon.
The series follows Marcella as she tries to make a success of her life and career, and navigate the changing landscape of her 30’s, whilst still recovering from the break-up of a long term relationship. Aided and abetted by her therapist, played by Karl Theobald (Green Wing, Plebs), friends and, unusually, her driving instructor.
Beginning life as a Comedy Blap, the original pilot episode of GameFace aired in April 2014, and garnered rave reviews with The Observer saying it was “a giddy hit" and The Mirror declaring that "GameFace is a sitcom pilot that deserves to become a full series."
The series started filming mid-February and is made by Objective Fiction (Fresh Meat, Peep Show, Witless) and was commissioned by C4 Comedy Commissioning Editor, Rachel Springett. Executive Producer for Objective is Ben Farrell, Producer is Charlotte Lewis and Director is Andrew Chaplin.
The six-part series will be shown on E4 later in the year
Filming is under way on the new series of GameFace, Roisin Conaty's comedy about an aspiring actress.
Channel 4 aired a pilot episode of the sitcom in 2014, and now Conaty has written a six-part series to be screened on E4 later this year.
GameFace focuses on Marcella, an aspiring actress with a distinct world view who, despite being ever optimistic, can't quite get her work, family or love life on track.
Conaty's real-life friend Caroline Ginty will return as Marcella's best friend and flatmate, joined by Uncle's Nina Toussaint-White as fellow flatmate Lucie.
Conaty's Man Down co-star Mike Wozniak was in the pilot, however he does not appear to be in the series. Instead, Green Wing's Karl Theobald will play the central character's therapist this time.
The series will follow Marcella as she tries to make a success of her life and career, and navigate the changing landscape of her 30s, whilst still recovering from the break-up of a long term relationship with ex-boyfriend Simon (played by Dustin Demri-Burns).
Also, if filming is now and it's only a 30 min sitcom, that gives him plenty of time to do more this year!
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It's brilliant news, the pilot was great, and really popular, which bodes very well for the series! Roisin Conaty is just hilarious as a comedian and as someone who appears on mainstream UK TV shows is well known, big audience potential!
The pilot can be watched here, uk only I think. But Damien is obvs not in the pilot and if you want the new series to be a surprise, perhaps don't watch it!
I haven't seen the pilot, but I've just found it on All4 so I know what I'm going to be doing later today - don't know if you can get All4 whimsy?
Yes! I log into my VPN first.
Domino, it's very rare I shy away from spoilers. I might check it out when I get a quiet moment, just for giggles.
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papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
I've watched the trailer, couldn't resist. I must admit I'd never heard of Roisin Conaty and had to Google her. I just don't watch the kind of shows she normally does, seemingly. 'Would I lie to you' is the exception and I could vaguely remember her, but she didn't stand out.
Going by the pilot, Game Face is the kind of show I would normally watch when there's nothing else on tv - amusing but I found the main character annoying. Hopefully it will have improved for the series - it's been a couple of years, after all. This is where I should add that I don't normally watch sitcoms, 'Big Bang Theory' and 'Not Going Out' being the exceptions. This means it will probably be a raging success!
However, I think the driving instructor is a perfect part for Damien, it should suit him to a T. I could see him portraying the long-suffering, slightly uptight personal well. Of course, he could play it in a whole different way.
I'm really looking forward to it and anything else coming up this year.
Same Ellie, same. I don't watch sitcoms and I wouldn't have given this one a second thought if it hadn't been for the announcement that Damien will be in the proper series. I LOL'd a few times on the pilot, and the driving instructor part seems like a "Hal-y" type, which Damien can totally do perfectly. Looking forward to it.
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papillon... pamplemousse... bibliothèque... un baiser A lilt in his voice. Every sentence like music... #kisskisskiss A terrible beauty is born. Love me some #Jacksass
I was only familiar with Roisin Conaty from panel shows...and must admit that I considered her to be such a regular feature mainly to make up the numbers for female comedians - she's ok....but agree with Ellie that she never really stood out for me. But that's the only context I knew her in - and many genuinely funny comedians don't fare so well on panel shows - so was more than prepared to be open minded about her as a writer/actor.
I don't often watch sit-coms either (although I occasionally catch an episode of 'Not Going Out' too - gotta love Lee Mack!! - and have dipped into 'Uncle' ) And I must admit that I watched the first half with a sinking heart. But I thought the second half was considerably better....so I'm optimistic that having established the characters and 'situation' it might roll out to be quite funny. And I agree that I can totally see Damien in the role as the driving instructor.
I wonder if they'll revamp the pilot as the first ep? It was aired such a long time ago, and there seem to be a few changes......the introduction of dad/brother and the ex as an actual character - as well as cast changes....so it might be a bit weird to pick up from there.
Domino - it would be totally amazing to see some filming pics!!!
I was wondering the same fifi, but with new actors in roles and a change in channel from channel 5 to e4 it may seem a bit odd not to repeat the origins of the series.. perhaps it will be a complete re-write but still introducing the characters and themes?
BH is my only experience of seeing both pilot (although I saw that well after the fact - it's on YouTube) and subsequent series. There were elements of the pilot in the first episode although there were many differences, too. I'm guessing that's reasonably typical although I certainly have no claim to expertise!
I was wondering the same fifi, but with new actors in roles and a change in channel from channel 5 to e4 it may seem a bit odd not to repeat the origins of the series.. perhaps it will be a complete re-write but still introducing the characters and themes?
yeah....this was my thinking. In which case, when it airs I may need to reserve judgement until ep 2
So now the waiting begins.... I see from your first post, domino, that it's due to air 'later this year'. Well....I guess that's better than next year
Really feeling quite impatient for some Damo on my tv. But I shall be a paragon of patience
Yes, 2017 seems a definite, with the info coming direct from Ch 4. And, we're over a third way through the year already, so can we say 'coming soon'? (ever the optimist!). Can't bloody wait for more DaMo on the TV!
It's been aaaggggeeeeess!! Must be well over 6 months since s5 of Suspects aired. I can't bloody wait either domino! If they only wrapped at the end of March...... I'm guessing that a sitcom doesn't have a lot of post production work to do, but 'coming soon' might be a bit over-optimistic (depending on your definition of 'soon')
GameFace has already had its world premiere! Episode 1 of the new series aired at Series Mania, a TV festival in Paris, where it was part of the 'comedy marathon.' It's a shame they used an old photo from the pilot but fingers crossed we begin hearing more about the new series soon!
Episode one sounds like the pilot, perhaps they've redone it as episode one? I've ne er heard of Series Mania before this - amazing what you learn just by visiting this forum 😀
All credit to google Ellie !
Yes you're right, it does sound exactly like the pilot, I guess they'd have to do a similar intro to the series as the pilot did, not just start where it left off. Can't wait to find out - hope we hear of an airdate soon and more info!