The Jack Whitehall/Rosie Perez comedy-thriller Bounty Hunters has proved to be a big hit for Sky.

The first episode of the Sky One series attracted a cumulative audience of 1.377 million, making it the biggest sitcom launch on Sky One for six years. In total, episode one of Bounty Hunters has had more than 230K views through Sky Go and streaming service NOW TV.

In the series Whitehall plays bookish boffin Barnaby who unwittingly gets sucked into a violent criminal underworld. Rosie Perez co-stars as Nina Morales, a hard-bitten New Yorker who teams up with Barnaby to retrieve the £50,000 Barnaby paid out for what he thought was a bargain but turned out to be treasure looted and sold by Jihadists. In a subplot she has her own problems, a drugs cartel is after her she shot a couple of their members. 

From Bounty Hunters To Disney Star?

Even if you don't think much of his comedy you have to admire Jack Whitehall's work ethic. He also has a one-off live show on Netflix and it has just been announced that he is to appear in the forthcoming live action Disney version of The Nutcracker. He also plays glam rock idol Marc Bolan in an upcoming Sky drama in the Urban Myths series entitled When Bowie Met Bolan, with Luke Treadaway as David Bowie. Good news for both Whitehall and, no doubt, his bank account.

Whitehall can certainly hold his own as an actor, which is probably no surprise after his decent performance in Decline and Fall. The only big surprise? No cameo from his ubiquitous real-life dad Michael. So far anyway.

Bounty Hunters is a Sky Original Production, written by Jack Whitehall and Freddy Syborn and starring Rosie Perez, Charity Wakefield, Robert Lindsay and Jack Whitehall. It is currently on Sky 1 & NOW TV on Wednesdays at 10pm.