Sitcom to screen on Sky after Channel 4 passed on show featuring The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird and Joe Thomas

This article is more than 8 years old

This article is more than 8 years old

Sky1 has swooped for Chickens, a sitcom starring The Inbetweeners' Simon Bird and Joe Thomas after Channel 4 decided not to go ahead with a full series.

The satellite broadcaster will regard it as quite a coup – or should that be coop? – to have signed up two of the biggest young comedy stars of the moment. Chickens will air on Sky1 in the summer of 2013.

Channel 4 had high hopes for Chickens, about the misadventures of three young men who stay at home during the first world war. A one-off pilot aired in the Comedy Showcase slot in September 2011 but the broadcaster chose not to commission a series.

Sky1 stepped in and ordered a full six-part run of the sitcom written by and starring Bird, Thomas, and long-time collaborator Jonny Sweet.

Bird, Sweet and Thomas met at university and took a show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2007 and 2008.

Bird and Thomas went on to star in The Inbetweeners, written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris, which ran for three series on E4 and became a hugely successful film.

It is rare but not unprecedented for a comedy to begin on one channel before transferring to another, most famously Men Behaving Badly, which switched to BBC1 after two series on ITV.

Sky's head of comedy Lucy Lumsden said: "We have fallen in love with those naughty Chickens and think our customers will do too. We are delighted to give such a talented bunch a home on Sky1 HD."

Made by independent producer Big Talk, Chickens will be executive produced by the company's joint chief executive, Kenton Allen. The comedy is Big Talk's first Sky commission.

Allen said: "Winning our first commission for Sky1 HD is a very significant moment for Big Talk.

"I know that Simon, Jonny and Joe will play a huge role in the future story of British Comedy and it's particularly thrilling that Sky1 are helping them make the big leap forward with their own authored series."

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