Funland

Funland
DVD Cover of Funland
Genre	comedy/thriller
Created by	Jeremy Dyson Simon Ashdown
Starring	Daniel Mays Kris Marshall Burn Gorman Sarah Smart Ian Puleston-Davies Judy Parfitt Kenny Doughty Frances Barber
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	11 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Kenton Allen
Producer(s)	Sanne Wohlenberg
Location(s)	Blackpool
Editor(s)	Tony Cranstoun Emer Reynolds Mark Elliot
Running time	1x50 minutes 10x30 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC Three
Original release	23 October – 7 November 2005

Funland is a comedy / thriller serial, produced by the BBC that was first screened from 23 October 2005 to 7 November 2005, on the digital channel BBC Three. Created by Jeremy Dyson (of The League of Gentlemen) and Simon Ashdown, the series consists of a fifty-minute opening episode followed by ten half-hour installments.

A prudish couple, Dudley (Kris Marshall) and Lola (Sarah Smart) arrive in Blackpool by bus from Stoke-on-Trent, and find themselves in a seedy boarding house run by the sinister Leo Finch (Philip Jackson). At the same time Carter Krantz (Daniel Mays) arrives from London, thrown out of a car naked and carrying only a key and a piece of paper with the name "Ambrose Chapel". He thinks that this is a man responsible for his mother's murder, but after roughing up an innocent taxidermist, Ambrose Chapfel, (Mark Gatiss), he discovers it is actually a disused church, now a nightclub called "Sins" which is run by Shirley Woolf (Ian Puleston-Davies). Shirley and his second wife Connie (Frances Barber) are in conflict with Shirley's mother Mercy (Judy Parfitt), the wheelchair-bound owner of a lapdancing club. Meanwhile, the mayor of Blackpool, Onan Van Kneck (Roy Barraclough) has launched a campaign to clean up the town, but is constantly harangued by journalist Ken Cryer (Simon Greenall), who accuses Van Kneck himself of corruption.

On his first night in Blackpool, Dudley is inveigled by Finch into joining a game of poker, where he loses £3,000. When he says that he is penniless, Finch tells him that his wife will have to earn the money for him. Lola is forced to become a stripper at Mercy's club. Initially terrified, she discovers both that she is good at it and that she enjoys it. Later, Shirley Woolf offers her £1,000 pounds for sex. Dudley encourages her to do it, and stays to watch in case she needs him to intervene, but is upset when he sees that she enjoys it more than she ever enjoyed sex with him. Krantz links up with Cryer, who says he can get information on Ambrose Chapel. When he goes to meet Cryer, however, he finds his things strewn over the beach and, under a bucket, his head. His only clue, once again, is a scrap of paper that says "Malcolm Carpet". Mercy holds a birthday party, which Shirley and Connie are obliged to attend. While another son, Willie (Brian Hibbard) is performing a magic trick, Mercy tortures Shirley by reminding him that it was while he was watching this, his favourite trick, that his father drowned in the bath. After Connie tells her she is pregnant, she puts on a "party mix" tape that is actually a recording of Shirley having sex with one of the lapdancers. Krantz sees "Malcolm Carpet" on one of Willie's old posters, and Willie tells him that that was the stage name of Leo Finch.