Channel 4 will be getting into the Lost spirit later this year with upcoming castaway comedy High And Dry due to arrive. However, it’ll be far from a weird and serious island adventure from hell as it stars Marc Whootton (The Nativity) as one of the survivors of a plane crash that find themselves on a remote island in the Indian Ocean.
You can check out a short trailer for the upcoming show below and while there’s no theme tune as of yet, we’re hoping music will be a feature. With Desert Island Discs, there’s bound to be some reference to the musical choices of the oddballs that find themselves stranded on the island paradise.
Air date
There’s no word as of yet in terms of the air date, but the show has been included in Channel 4’s 2018 comedy highlights, so it shouldn’t be too long before it touches down uncomfortably. With the tropical setting it seems like it’s well placed for a summer showing, but we’ll update things here as more details about the air date are confirmed. There will be 6 30-minute episodes in total, but we’ll have to wait to see whether or not they get off the island in series 1 or if it’s going to be an ongoing show.
Story
The story focuses on a group of survivors of a plane crash that find themselves stranded on an island out in the middle of nowhere. However, if you thought the castaways on Lost were dysfunctional, you’re in for a wake up call, because High And Dry features some very unique characters.
They’re “led” by Brett Sullivan, one of the air stewards on the plane, who proclaims himself to be the king of the island. The rest of the survivors are family man Douglas, space cowboy Arnab, blunt talking Harriet and her devoted sidekick Susan and you can see them in action in the series 1 trailer below.
High And Dry trailer
In addition to the trailer above, you can also watch the full pilot episode below, which was created as part of Channel 4’s comedy BLAPs. They’re designed to showcase and support new programme ideas and potential comedy stars with the best of the bunch going on to be made into a full series. High And Dry appears to be one of the most popular and you can check it out for yourself in the video below to see why.
Theme tune
Neither the trailer nor the pilot episode confirm the High And Dry theme tune, but part way through 15-minute BLAP there’s a lengthy candidate in Swim Until You Cant See Land by Frightened Rabbit. You can listen to the song in full below, but we’ll have to wait for the air date of episode 1 to find out if it makes it as the theme song for the show.
Cast
Marc Wootton leads the cast as Brett Tracey Sullivan and he’s joined by Asim Chaudhry (People Just Do Nothing) as Arnab and Harry Peacock (Toast of London) as Douglas. Vicki Pepperdine (Getting On) plays Harriet and Grace Rex (Master of None) stars as Susan.
Production
In addition to heading up the cast, Marc Wootton is also the writer of High And Dry, following up on his efforts on La La Land (the British comedy series, not the hit Hollywood musical). Dave Lambert directs the Baby Cow production with Kerry Waddell as producer, and Paul Schlesinger and Christine Langan as executive producers.
First impressions
The BLAP for High And Dry is pretty funny and the trailer above gives a pretty good indication that the full series has been given a lot of support. This is definitely one to add to your list of new comedies to check out in 2018, especially if you’re a fan of Marc Wootton’s previous work. The fact that Baby Cow Productions has created the show is a sure fire indication that it could well be a potential hit.
