Jack Dee, Claire Skinner and Archie Panjabi join Brexit comedy Power Monkeys
The EU Referendum just got weirder
If the EU referendum hasn’t turned out weird and darkly hilarious enough for you already, then we’ve got some good news – the creators of last year’s election comedy Ballot Monkeys are returning with a brand-new Brexit-themed series, which has just announced its cast.
Written by Outnumbered’s Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, the six-part series will satirise the pro-and-anti Europe camps, those in between and the outside powers (ie the Russian Kremlin and Donald Trump) who have a major stake in which way the vote goes.
Jack Dee will lead the ensemble as a Tory activist called Oliver, accompanied in Conservative HQ’s Unity Unit by sensitive colleague Sarah (aka Outnumbered’s Claire Skinner), fence-sitter Tony (New Tricks’ Anthony Calf) and unfireable PA Ruby (Liz Kingsman, who played the same character in Ballot Monkeys).
Meanwhile, on the cross-party Brexit bus we’ll meet former UKIP-er Spencer (Pirates of the Caribbean’s Kevin McNally), production manager Gerry (Andy Nyman, also returning from Ballot Monkeys) and student Jackie (Gwyneth Keyworth), a staunch student Corbynista.
And floating between the two is The Good Wife’s Archie Panjabi as a career Tory trying to pick a side, US Republican campaigners Lauren, Bea and Brett (Amelia Bullmore, Ayda Field and Robert Wilfort) and Russian apparatchiks Oleg (Ben Willbond) and Alexi (Alec Utgoff), all of whom have their own political issues to deal with.
Basically it all sounds like a lot of fun, and we can’t wait to see how it turns out. And even if we do end up making a massive mistake in the referendum in June, it’s nice to know we’ll be able to laugh about it, eh?
Power Monkeys airs on Channel 4 every Wednesday at 10pm from 8th June, with an extra special episode following the EU referendum, at 10pm on Friday 24th June.
