ACLAIMED actor, writer and comedian Jamie Demetriou has joined the cast of a new sitcom set in Northern Ireland.
Demetriou, who has twice won the Best Male Comedy Performance BAFTA for the title role in his sitcom Stath Lets Flats, will appear in Funboys next month.
It will see him link up with Simon Mayhew-Archer, the BAFTA-award-winning producer of BBC comedy, This Country.
‘Pilot blew me away’
Funboys follows Callum (Ryan Dylan), Jordan (Rian Lennon) and Lorcan (Lee R. James) as the three emotionally-unassembled young men attempt to navigate the hardships of life in small-town Northern Ireland.
From first girlfriends to dead pet pigs, it takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, prioritising authentic, naturalistic comedy.
However, the friends’ shared love of innocent fun and wholesome mucking about threatens to land them in hot water.
Demetriou — who can also be seen in the new Jame Foxx and Cameron Diaz film Back in Action — described working on Funboys as a career highlight.
“The Funboys pilot blew me away,” said the Barbie actor.
Funboys sees three young men attempt to naivgate the hardships of life in small-town Northern Ireland (Image: BBC / Jolane Schaffner)“Their dedication to making something genuinely funny and specific is deeply exciting and very rare.
“Getting to see it in person on set was a career highlight for me.”
Also joining the cast are Ele McKenzie, Brian Devlin, Owen Colgan, Paul Bazely, Richard Croxford, Emer O’Connor, Amanda Hurwitz, James Martin, Vanessa Ifediora, Walter Chigui and Brendan Quinn.
Lennon, the star and director, described the new additions to the cast as ‘a uniquely funny assortment of actors who understood the show’s specific tone’.
“Each person brought their own colour and verve and the result is a lovely collaborative finger painting of silly wholesome comedy that we’re very excited to stick up on the nation’s fridges,” he said.
‘Funniest people’
Funboys has been developed from a 2023 BBC iPlayer short comedy film and is written by Lennon and co-star Dylan.
Mayhew-Archer, whose Mayhay Studios produced the show with support from Northern Ireland Screen, was full of praise for the pair and their fellow lead actor James.
“Rian, Ryan and Lee are three of the funniest, most inventive people I’ve worked with and I really hope this show brings as much happiness to others as it has to me,” he said.
The four-part series will air on BBC NI, BBC Three, BBC One and BBC iPlayer this February.