Tim Key will be heading back to puritanical Britain in his first lead role comedy The Witchfinder, which will be coming soon to BBC 2, so here’s everything we know about the show, including how many episodes and our take on the theme tune. The upcoming series sounds like a cross between Blackadder, Maid Marion and Upstart Crow, which can only make ean good things in our book.
What’s it about?
It’s set in the midst of the 17th Century as a wave of anti-pagan fundamentalism sweeps through the land, fuelled by religious fervour, superstition and a fear of the unknown illnesses that they faced. As a result, a new profession sprang up as Witchfinders either took advantage of the situation or joined in with the zealous hunt to rid the world of anyone seemingly affiliated with the dark arts.
The show centres on Tim Key’s character, a failing Witchfinder, who manages to snag himself a suspected witch.
However, that’s just the start of the challenge for the pompous and chauvinistic anti-hero, because he’s then got to transport her on horseback through East Anglia to get her to a trial. If it all goes well his fortunes will change for the better, but the problem is that his “witchy” companion has a way of asking some very awkward questions, challenging the witchfinder’s principles as the journey unfolds.
You can follow us on Twitter to keep up with more TV news. You can also follow BBC at https://twitter.com/BBCTwo to see more on their upcoming shows.
What to expect from the theme tune and music
Going on a game of soundalikes, there are two options for The Witchfinder theme tune, but either way it’s bound to feature some traditional British melodies. The first option is that it will be a comical lyric theme with classical folk backing, building off similar songs for both Blackadder and Maid Marion, which seem like obvious inspiration for the BBC 2 series.
The second option is that it will just be an instrumental theme tune with similarities to Upstart Crow. We’ve mentioned before that lyrics in theme songs appear to be a thing of the past, so the Tim Key comedy could well just go for a classical pipes song. However, it would be fun if it threw in some tongue-in-cheek comedy lyrics to add in a little nostalgia for good measure.
How many episodes of The Witchfinder are there
There will be six episodes for series one of The Witchfinder on BBC 2, with each episode lasting 30 minutes, or until a witch is burnt at the burgers. As things stand, it sounds like it may well be a single series comedy, but then a lot will depend on the success of the opening episodes.
Journeys of discovery, even comic ones, don’t usually roll into a second journey. We’ll know more when the episodes arrive, but for now you can bank on their being six of them with an outside chance of either a runaway second series or an enforced continuation.
You can see more from our comedy TV news section at www.tuppencemagazine.co.uk/tag/comedy-tv-shows/ or visit BBC 2 at https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo.
