Filming starts today (17 September) on the latest outing for the Comic Strip team, with a three week shoot on The Comic Strip Presents… The Red Top! taking place in and around Plymouth.  

Comic Strip’s founding father, Peter Richardson, directs from a screenplay he wrote with Brigit Grant and Pete Richens; he also executive produces for Great Western Features alongside Nick Smith, and Simon Lupton for UKTV.

The irreverent fantasy stars Maxine Peake as the flame-haired Rebekah, a naive northern girl who accidentally becomes chief executive of News International and gets caught up in a massive scandal.

Casting is handled in-house, and the producers have come up with some imaginative hires including Nigel Planer as Rupert Murdoch and Russell Tovey as Andy Coulson.

When the show was announced, Richardson said: “Like our previous Comic Strip satire – ‘The Hunt For Tony Blair’ which was set in the sixties, ‘The Red Top (WT)’ lampoons the phone hacking scandal and the world of politics and press proprietors, and is set in a colourful seventies ‘Boogie Nights’ style parallel universe with a disco soundtrack. I’m thrilled to have such a fantastic cast. It should be huge fun.”

Further details including the line producer can be found on Production Intelligence.