Sundance Channel Acquires British, Australian Series

NEW YORK, October 9:
Sundance Channel has acquired the first two seasons of the British comedy
series Pulling, and the
eight-part Australian sketch series Big Girl’s Blouse, which Laura Michalchyshyn, the executive VP and
general manager of programming and creative affairs for the network, told World
Screen Newsflash, is part of the
Sundance Channel’s efforts to “inject humor” into its schedule.

The BAFTA-nominated series
Pulling, which originally aired
on BBC 3, will make its U.S. television premiere on Sundance Channel in
2008. Each season is made up
of six, 30-minute episodes. In this comedy series, Donna (played by Sharon
Horgan), is a young woman about to settle down and marry her
dependable—if rather boring—fiancé Karl (Cavan Clerkin). During her
bachelorette party, the true horror of settling down and settling for
second-best hits Donna, and she winds up telling him that the wedding is off
and moves into a shared house with her best friends, sex-mad Karen (Tanya
Franks) and lovable dreamer Louise (Rebekah Staton). Pulling is co-written and created by Dennis Kelly and
Sharon Horgan (Donna).

The sketch series Big
Girl’s Blouse, which originally
aired on Australia’s Seven Network in 1994, consists of eight, 30-minute
episodes. Big Girl’s Blouse
features the early work of comedians Jane Turner, Gina Riley and Magda
Szubanski of the Australian comedy Kath and Kim, will also premiere on Sundance Channel in 2008.

The series features
sketches mimicking the television industry and other aspects of Australian
life. Big Girl’s Blouse stars
and is written and produced by Turner, Riley and Szubanski.

“As we are a
channel that’s dedicated to [subjects like] politics, human rights—the
environment has always had a very front-burner role—the channel has
always had a very serious role,” explains Michalchyshyn.
“In the last three years, we’ve strategically tried
to inject a sense of humor. The other part is that programming has to be
entertaining, so this is how the acquisitions really filled that mandate.”

Adds Michalchyshyn: “Right
now, we have an audience—that we know from our public
testing—that’s skewed slightly towards males, but we do have a strong
female audience. I think that Pulling and
Big Girl’s Blouse will draw a more
feminine audience, which for us, is highly desirable.”