series 2 | series 1
series 2 | series 1
Written and Created by
Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields
Directed by
Martin Dennis
Producer
Adrian Pegg
Executive Producers for Mischief Screen
Hilary Strong, Kenny Wax
Executive Producers for Big Talk
Kenton Allen, Matthew Justice, Saurabh Kakkar
Starring
Bryony Corrigan, Dave Hearn, Chris Leask, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill, Nancy Zamit
Broadcaster
BBC One
Episodes / Duration
5 x 30 mins
Transmission Date
27/09/2021
Once again, Cornley Drama Society return to the BBC with five plays performed live for the pubic to ‘enjoy’. Sadly, they are as inept as ever, this time with the added complication of an internal feud that spills out into open, incompetent warfare.
A Downton-esque family saga, a Shakespeare history play (Colin Shakespeare that is) and a US-style prison break drama make up the first three shambolic episodes. But in a bid to prevent the Drama Society disintegrating the final two eps are a collection of short performances chosen by the individual cast. An acting disasterclass, a 70s sitcom in questionable taste, a voice-over audition thinly disguised as an audio drama and a ballet forgotten for good reason provide the series with the conclusion it deserves.
Sets fall down and, oddly, up, horses cause havoc, and many, many things catch fire.
“One of the flat-out funniest things on TV for years”
(Heat)
“The talented, fearless cast always find a way to make the slip-ups surprising and hilarious”
(TV Times)
“Expertly done by a cast who know how to convey the rising panic of actors determined to persevere whatever the chaos”
(Radio Times)
series 2 | series 1
series 2 | series 1
Written and Created by
Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields
Directed by
Martin Dennis
Producer
Jim Poyser
Executive Producers for Mischief Screen
Hilary Strong, Kenny Wax
Executive Producers for Big Talk
Kenton Allen, Saurabh Kakkar, Matthew Justice
Starring
Bryony Corrigan, Dave Hearn, Chris Leask, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill, Nancy Zamit
Broadcaster
BBC One
Episodes / Duration
6 x 30 mins
Transmission Date
23/12/2019
Every week, the well-meaning amateurs of the Cornley Dramatic Society perform a half-hour play – live! – on BBC One: a horror story, a wartime drama, a legal thriller, a period romance, a deep south melodrama, and a Christmas fable. And every week the performance goes terribly, terribly wrong. Sets collapse, special effects fail, actors dry – life, limb and the studio audience are threatened. But the show must go on…
From the creators of The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong.
“Will leave you keen for more”
(Daily Mirror)
“Perfectly, deliberately terrible”
(Financial Times)
“Turns mistakes into an art form… very funny”
(Daily Mail)
“It must take a lot of work to look this under-rehearsed”
(The Guardian)