‘Inbetweeners’ Stars Simon Bird and Joe Thomas Comedy ‘Chickens’ to Launch on Sky

LONDON – They were the surprise stars of The Inbetweeners movie which has proved one of the biggest comedy hits in recent times. Now Simon Bird and Joe Thomas have teamed up with Sky to announce their new comedy series Chickens, in a coup for the satellite broadcaster.

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The series will see them join up with Jonny Sweet to write and star in the 6x30 comedy series about a group of conscientious objectors in Britain during the First World War.

The project is Bird and Thomas’ first major project since The Inbetweeners, the Channel 4 comedy that became a hugely successful British film.

“We’re delighted to be joining the Sky family to be making a series of our First World War sitcom, Chickens. It was the war to end all wars, and we hope this will be the comedy to end all comedies,” the trio said.

Channel 4 is understood to have decided not to proceed with a full series of Chickens, and the show was picked up by Sky head of comedy Lucy Lumsden and will be produced by Big Talk productions and exec-produced by Big Talk CEO Kenton Allen.

Lumsden said Sky had “fallen in love” with the naughtiness of Chickens and believed the show would be a huge success.

The Inbetweeners movie made more than $70 million in domestic U.K. box office and became the biggest selling U.K. comedy DVD, selling over 600,000 copies in its first day.