First look at Sheridan Smith and David Walliams in Sky’s Christmas comedy Ratburger
An unusual topic for festive comedy, we’ll admit
While it may only be October, in a relative blink of an eye we’ll be settling down for all the best parts of Christmas, which here at Radio Times mean the festive specials and one-off dramas airing over the Yuletide period (all contained within a certain legendary RT double issue, of course).
And so we’re already getting our first proper look at one of Sky’s offerings for the Christmas period, an adaptation of David Walliam’s children’s novel Ratburger.
Sky has released its first image of Walliams himself (nearly unrecognisable as sleazy burger van man Burt) and co-star Sheridan Smith.
The story follows a young girl named Zoe (Talia Barnett) who befriends a dancing rat called Armitage and plans to enter him in the school talent show. However, when her stepmother (Smith) and “shifty burger man” Burt find out about her rodent pal, they decide they’d rather put ratburgers on the menu instead…
The one-off family comedy also stars Mark Benton as Zoe’s dad, Nigel Planer as the Headmaster and Ben Bailey-Smith as celeb chef Charlie Jacobs, and was adapted for TV by Kevin Cecil and Walliams himself.
"Hilarious, gruesome and warm-hearted in equal measure, Ratburger is a terrific tale,” Jon Mountague, Sky’s head of comedy said in a release.
“It brings David Walliams and Sheridan Smith proudly into Sky 1's cracking comedy line-up, alongside Jack Whitehall, Rupert Grint and Idris Elba."
We can only hope the culinary chicanery doesn’t put viewers off their Christmas dinner…
Ratburger will be available on Sky 1 and TV streaming service NOW TV in the UK and Ireland this Christmas
Authors
Huw Fullerton is a Commissioning Editor for Radio Times magazine, covering Entertainment, Comedy and Specialist Drama.
