Comics, Brand and Davies to play social workers in dark comedy.

Jo Brand (Getting On, Going Forward) and Alan Davies (Bob & Rose, Jonathan Creek) are to star in a new six-part Channel 4 comedy, Damned.

Created and written by Jo Brand, Morwenna Banks (Skins, The Thick of It) and Will Smith (Veep, The Thick of It), Damned follows the lives of Rose (Brand) and Al (Davies), two rather jaded social workers working in a children’s services department.

Swimming against a tide of bureaucracy and pedantry, and contending with the absurdities and irrationalities of life in a county council office, Damned follows Al and Rose as they navigate their way through their equally trying professional and personal lives.

The thirty-minute episodes are dark, warmly comical and a frequently poignant observation on what it means to try your best amidst the most frustrating of circumstances.

The comedy also stars co-writer Morwenna Banks, Kevin Eldon (Game of Thrones), Himesh Patel (Eastenders), Georgie Glen (Waterloo Road), Aisling Bea (The Fall) and Marjorie Yates (Shameless).

Jo Brand, said: “As the daughter of a social worker, who worked for many years in child protection, I grew up seeing social workers go unrecognised for the good things they did and castigated for the bad. It’s like being a traffic warden without the perks. Damned is an attempt to portray the tragic-comic lives of social workers, always under pressure, always in possession of a grim sense of humour and always wrong in the eyes of the public.”

Nerys Evans, Deputy Head of Comedy at Channel 4, says: “We are thrilled to be working with Jo, Morwenna and Will on this brilliant bittersweet series. The series highlights some of the challenges and dilemmas facing front line social workers in this time of austerity. The characters are warm, honest and human and often have their own set of challenges outside of the office as well.”

Filming on Damned begins next month (June), is produced by What Larks Productions and directed by Ian Fitzgibbon (Raised by Wolves).