EXCLUSIVE: Sky is cementing its relationship with veteran comedy producers Big Talk Productions. TVWise reported back in February that Sky was developing a comedy series with Big Talk titled Give Out Girls and that the half-hour project was poised to be picked up with a six episode order. Insiders have now confirmed to me that Sky Living has given the green-light to Give Out Girls, with pre-production on the series already underway.
As we initially reported two months ago, the comedy series was created by Hatty Ashdown and Anthony MacMurray and, while plot details are being kept firmly under wraps, one source described the project as “fantastic, really very funny.” I understand that Big Talk Productions is producing the series in association with Popper Pictures, with the two companies have previously collaborated on Channel 4’s Friday Night Dinner. I’m still waiting to hear back from some of my other sources on the premise of the series and the actors involved, but I’m told that Chloe Thomas (Drifters) has come on board to direct, with Jim Poyser producing and Big Talk’s CEO Kenton Allen executive producing alongside Sky’s Head of Comedy Lucy Lumsden.
Give Out Girls is the fourth series Big Talk has produced for Sky Entertainment (the other three being Sky1’s Chickens, Sky Art’s A Young Doctor’s Notebook and Sky Atlantic’s Mr Sloane) and has the distinction of also being the second series that landed at Sky after initally being passed on by Channel 4. According to my sources, Give Out Girls was initially pitched to Channel 4 back in 2010, but it never got past the script stage. I hear that it was only after Sky picked up Big Talk’s Chickens that they floated Give Out Girls to the broadcaster. Sky Living then commissioned a series of scripts, which I’m told were delivered in December 2012.
