''The Persuasionists'' is a sitcom broadcast on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

set in the world of advertising starring Iain Lee,

Simon Farnaby Simon Farnaby (born 2 April 1973) is an English actor, comedian and writer. He is a member of the British Horrible Histories troupe in which he starred in the television series ''Horrible Histories'', ''Yonderland'' and ''Ghosts''. He has writte ...

, Adam Buxton,

Jarred Christmas Jarred Christmas (born 1980) is a comedian from New Zealand who now lives and works in the United Kingdom. He won the Chortle Comedy Award for Best Compere. Early life Christmas grew up in Christchurch. He attended an all-boys secondary sch ...

and

Daisy Haggard Celia Daisy Morna Haggard (born 1978) is a British actress and writer. She is known for her roles in the BBC sitcoms ''Uncle'' and ''Episodes''. Haggard stars in BBC Three’s comedy-drama, '' Back to Life'', which she also created and co-wrot ...

, and featuring

Natalie Gumede Natalie Gumede (born 20 March 1984) is an English actress. She is known for playing Kirsty Soames in the ITV soap opera, ''Coronation Street'', from 2011 to 2013. She previously played China in BBC Three comedy show ''Ideal''. She has also appe ...

(amongst others). It was the sitcom writing debut for Jonathan Thake, best known until then for ‘the slag of all snacks’ campaign for Pot Noodle. The Persuasionists premiered on Wednesday 13 January 2010. Bwark Productions (creators of ''

The Inbetweeners ''The Inbetweeners'' is a British coming-of-age television teen sitcom, which originally aired on E4 from 2008 until 2010 and was created and written by Damon Beesley and Iain Morris. The series follows the misadventures of suburban teenager ...

'') produced the series,

Iain Morris Iain Kevan Morris (born 6 August 1973) is an English writer. He is best known for creating ''The Inbetweeners'' with his writing partner Damon Beesley and co-hosting a show on London radio station XFM with stand-up comedian Jimmy Carr. He fe ...

and

Damon Beesley Damon Beesley (born 1971) is an English writer and television producer, best known for his work on British comedy ''The Inbetweeners'' and New Zealand comedy ''Flight of the Conchords''. He often works alongside his writing partner Iain Morris. I ...

were the executive producers and

Tristram Shapeero Tristram Shapeero is a British television director. He has directed many comedy series, initially in the United Kingdom and later in the United States. Early life Shapeero was born in Somerset and spent his childhood in Bath, where he attended ...

directed. Andrew Collins acted as script editor.

Synopsis

The sitcom focuses on the lives of five overpaid and underworked employees at fictional advertising agency HHH&H.

Reception

The first episode received generally negative critical reviews from the press with critics suggesting that while the cast showed promise, they were let down by a poor script, bad direction and poor characterisations. Some held out hope that future episodes might improve; however, even after further airings, critical response remained negative, with heavy editing and excessive use of canned laughter blamed in part for the show 'not working'. Half-way through the series, the show was moved to a "graveyard" slot at 11.20pm, due to below-average ratings and poor reviews from the press and bloggers. It was not renewed for a second series.

The Scum Also Rises

The project began in 2007 as a pilot for BBC Three called "The Scum Also Rises", which starred

Chris Barrie Chris Barrie (born Christopher Jonathan Brown, 28 March 1960) is a British actor, comedian, and impressionist. He worked as a vocal impressionist on the ITV sketch show ''Spitting Image'' (1984–1996) and as Lara Croft's butler Hillary in the ...

and Kevin Bishop. A second unbroadcast pilot was produced in 2008. The show had been through many changes by the time that the full series aired in 2010, including an almost complete re-cast.Comedy
Accessed 2010

Sources

*Curtis Brown Literary and Talent Agency http://www.curtisbrown.co.uk/tft/client/user1231/ *Taylor Herring PR http://www.taylorherring.com/blog/index.php/tag/jonathan-thake/

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Persuasionists, The 2010s British sitcoms 2010 British television series debuts 2010 British television series endings BBC high definition shows BBC television comedy English-language television shows Television series by Banijay