TV Channel Dave is making a new fantasy comedy drama with an all-star cast, including a cameo from Steve Coogan. Zapped! will star James Buckley (The Inbetweeners), Paul Kaye (Game of Thrones), Sharon Rooney (My Mad Fat Diary), Ken Collard (Cuckoo) and Louis Emerick (Benidorm).
Coogan will make a guest appearance – he is also executive producer. His company Baby Cow is making the three-part series. the show.
Brian Weaver (James Buckley), an online data marketing assistant (even he doesn't know what that is) finds himself abruptly transported to a parallel world. Fortunately, there’s a pub. There he meets the owner, Herman (a former warrior; Louis Emerick) plus a handful of regulars: Barbara (a hopeless soothsayer; Sharon Rooney), Steg (an armchair revolutionary; Ken Collard) and Howell (a brain-fried Wizard; Paul Kaye). Brian is desperate to get home, and his new acquaintances are no help at all. Instead he finds himself being sucked into a world he doesn't understand, full of psychopathic Fairies, Shell Men, seductive Demi-Fins, vicious Throcks and the frighteningly unpredictable side-effects of Howell’s magical powers. It's even worse than being an online data marketing assistant.
The series is written by Dan Gaster, Will Ing and Paul Powell. Coogan says "Zapped! is fantasy, heightened reality, lots of escapism, with one foot firmly in the real world. It has all the requisite elements to take the audience on a journey to this slightly mad world; from wizards and spells to mermaids, psychopathic fairies, smartphones and then back to the boring office job."
Zapped! goes into production in Pinewood in June and will be broadcast on Dave this autumn, launching off the back of the brand new series of Red Dwarf - Red Dwarf XI.