Comedian Tim Key will be starring in new E4 comedy drama, Gap Year, following on from the success of his stints as Sidekick Simon on Alan Partridges Mid Morning Matters. The new show does pretty much what it says on the tin, focusing on a madcap Uni gap year for a bunch of fresh faced adventurers as they packpack through China.
No offence to Tim, but he probably hasn’t been described as fresh-faced since he was eleven, but then he’s playing the older traveller in the group, which makes a lot more sense. He’s attempting to relive the big gap year he had first time around in the ’90s, leaving a broken down marriage and failed business behind in the UK in the hopes he can just escape from it all in the wilds of China.
Air date
The opening episode of Gap Year has been confirmed for an air date of Thursday the 23rd February 2017 at 9pm. That puts it just past the watershed, so we’re expecting it to pull no punches. The trailer below doesn’t really contain anything all that complaint-worthy, but Channel 4 is promising sun, sex and surprises in the right episode show.
Story
While Greg (Time Key) is perhaps the largest character in the show – that’s not a reference to his cuddly frame by the way – the plot starts out with childhood friends Dylan and Shawn as they head out to China on their gap year. They’ve drifted apart a little over the years, but the trip hurls them back together.
It doesn’t take them long to form a band of misfits as they befriend runaway thirty-something Greg and his adopted mates Ashley and May. They all head out to take in the sights and sounds of the East with China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal filling out their travel plans.
However, Dylan has ulterior motives for the journey, with an ex girlfriend top of his to-do lost in China, so Sean might not be getting the lads on tour year of wonder that he was hoping for.
Cast
Tim Key is joined by a mostly little-known cast with Anders Hayward (Sistema) playing Dylan and Ade Oyefeso (Youngsters) as Sean. American actress Alice Lee (Switched At Birth) plays diligent American-Chinese student May and Canadian Brittney Wilson (Bates Motel) plays her fellow US backpacker, and paid guardian, Ashley.
Production
The show has been created by writer Tom Basden (Fresh Meat), and written by written by Basden, James Wood (Rev), Amy Roberts & Loren McLaughlin (Cold Feet), Charlie Covell (Burn Burn Burn), Tim Key (Screenwipe), Jonny Sweet (Chickens) and Sam Leifer (Plebs). It’s been directed by Jonathan van Tulleken (Misfits) and produced by Tim Whitby. Co-creators and executive producers are Jamie Campbell and Joel Wilson for the production company Eleven.
First impressions
The trailer for Gap Year looks like it might be holding back a little, but Tim Key is looking as funny as ever and the setup of a backpacking adventure starting out in China creates a lot of potential for the show. Hopefully, the episodes themselves take things to the next level without being too much of an Inbetweeners 2 copycat.
