Apple Unveils First British Scripted Original, Imelda Staunton & Rafe Spall Relationship Comedy ‘Trying’ – TCA

Peter White

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Apple has officially unveiled Trying, its first British scripted original, a relationship comedy starring Harry Potter’s Imelda Staunton and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’s Rafe Spall.

The SVOD service is set to globally premiere the eight-part series on Friday May 1.

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The half-hour comedy has been rumored in the UK for over six months and has regularly been referred to by its working title of Alabama.

Spall plays Jason, while Cuckoo star Esther Smith, best known for starring in the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play, stars as his partner Nikki. The pair want a baby. But it’s the one thing they just can’t have. Staunton also stars in the series, which was written by new writer Andy Wolton, whose credits include animated series The Amazing World of Gumball and Channel 4’s Lookalikes.

It is produced by BBC Studios, which has previously produced The Office and The Thick Of It and currently produces series including This Country, which is being piloted in the U.S.

Chris Sussman, who ran BBC Studios’ comedy unit, is understood to have produced before he joins Netflix’s UK scripted team. Jim O’Hanlon (Catastrophe) directed all eight episodes.

BBC Studio’s Natural History Unit is currently producing Prehistoric Planet, a dinosaur documentary series, produced by The Jungle Book director, that will use CGI to tell the story of the last days of the dinosaurs 66M years ago, but Trying marks its first British scripted move.

Jay Hunt is Apple’s European creative director of worldwide video. Last summer, the former Channel 4 boss told the House of Lords, “I commission a considerable amount of content from the UK creative community. It is exciting to have an organization of Apple’s size coming into the UK and giving the sector here that level of scrutiny and support. Long before we have even launched our original commissioning strategy, millions of pounds have been spent on commissioning with British production houses.”

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