Sky 1 launches Sally Phillips back into the world of ‘Parents’

Watch the trailer for new 6 x 30 minute comedy Parents, coming to Sky 1 HD, starring Sally Phillips (Miranda) as the daughter forced to move back in with her parents Len and Alma played by Tom Conti (Friends) and Susie Blake (Mrs Brown’s Boys).

Writers Lloyd Woolf and Joe Tucker explore what happens when high-flying executive Jenny Pope (Phillips) must return to the parental home when she loses her job and her house is repossessed, meaning she’s had to move her husband, self-styled entrepreneur Nick (Darren Strange, Phone Shop) and two teenage children, Sam (Christian Lees) and Becky (Jadie Rose Hobson), into her parents’ – Len (Conti) and Alma (Blake) – house in Kettering. Purely on a temporary basis, of course. However, Jenny’s determined to climb back up the ladder and get back to her old life, no matter what it takes.

Parents will also guest star: Daisy Haggard (Psychoville, Episodes), John Thomson (Cold Feet, 24 Hour Party People), Imogen Stubbs (Sense and Sensibility) and Felicity Montagu (I’m Alan Partridge, Nighty Night).

Co-creator Lloyd Woolf comments: “The challenges come from writing the episodes. They’re like pop songs in that they look easy, but, in fact, being that simple is actually quite complicated. It’s hard work, but, you know, that’s what makes it rewarding – you feel like you’ve pulled off something tricky.” Joe Tucker added: “We wanted to keep the tone light and playful, and we also wanted it to be grounded. We wanted the scenarios, however comic they were, to be as believable as possible and to stem from the characters. That was always the biggest challenge.”

It’s a challenge that their lead, Sally Phillips, thinks they’ve more than risen to. She said: “It’s a joy of a role to perform and that is unusual. I don’t write things that are fun to perform, which is ironic because, as a performer, you’d think I would. [Joe and Lloyd] have written stuff that you want to observe exactly but, at the same time, there’s room to piss about [laughs]. There is lots of freedom, so there’ll be 20 ways to perform something, again, unusual … This time, the freedom was all elsewhere. They don’t tell you what to do in the script, they’ve put you, the performer, in the situation and then you do whatever you want.”

Parents is directed by Simon Delaney (Cold Feet, Lead Balloon) and will be exec produced by Ben Farrell for Objective Productions (Peep Show, Fresh Meat) and Lucy Lumsden for Sky.

Parents will air on Sky 1 HD Friday 6 July with two episodes at 8.30pm and 9pm.