Channel 4 Sets August Premiere Date For Aisling Bea’s New Comedy Drama ‘This Way Up’
Channel 4 has set an August premiere date for ‘This Way Up‘, a brand new comedy-drama written by and starring Aisling Bea (‘The Fall’, ‘Gap Year’).
The series follows the charming and funny Aine (Bea), a whip-smart English-as-a-foreign language (TEFL) teacher trying to pull her life back together after a “teeny little nervous breakdown”, as her sister Shona, played by Sharon Horgan (‘Catastrophe’, ‘Pulling’), worries, not only about her younger sibling, but also about her own life choices. The TEFL school where Aine teaches brings together a room full of characters also trying to find their own hope, direction and happiness in this messy world.
Through Aine’s own experiences and the experiences of those around her, ‘This Way Up’ explores how the pursuit of happiness differs for everybody and unveils the obstacles which come between that goal and the reality of a life lived. This poignant, pin-sharp comedy shows the journey to happiness is harder for some than others.
“The show is technically a comedy about loneliness, but that’s kind of a hard-sell,” comments Aisling Bea about the series. “The romance at the core of the show is the relationship between two sisters. What I wanted to do was make a show not about someone breaking down, but starting broken and going ‘this way up’ on the way to recovery. And I wanted to show how messy and hard it is to get better and remain well. And it doesn’t have to be done in a maudlin way; People get through things with humour. It’s about family, and loneliness, outsiders, immigrants, and how we all feel like outsiders at times.”
The six-episode series also stars Aasif Mandvi (‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’), Kadiff Kirwan (‘Timewasters’), Indira Varma (‘Game of Thrones’), and Tobias Menzies (‘Game of Thrones’, ‘Outlander’).
‘This Way Up‘ premieres Thursday, 8th August 2019 at 10pm on Channel 4. The entire series will be available to stream on All 4 after the first episode, with the show continuing weekly on Channel 4.
