Yonderland
| Yonderland | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Sitcom |
| Created by |
Mathew Baynton Simon Farnaby Martha Howe-Douglas Jim Howick Laurence Rickard Ben Willbond |
| Written by | Mathew Baynton Martha Howe-Douglas Simon Farnaby Jim Howick Laurence Rickard Ben Willbond Toby Davies |
| Directed by | Steve Connelly |
| Starring | Martha Howe-Douglas Mathew Baynton Jim Howick Simon Farnaby Laurence Rickard Ben Willbond |
| Composer(s) | Philip Pope |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 25 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Tim Bevan Eric Fellner Juliette Howell Lucy Lumsden Saskia Schuster |
| Producer(s) | Sioned Wiliam |
| Editor(s) | Mike Holliday |
| Running time | 30 minutes (inc. adverts) |
| Production company(s) | Working Title Films |
| Release | |
| Original network | Sky 1 |
| Picture format | 16:9 (1080i HDTV) |
| Original release | 10 November 2013 – 24 December 2016 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Yonderland was a British sitcom television series that was broadcast on Sky 1 from 10 November 2013 to 24 December 2016. It was produced by Sioned Wiliam, and was created by, written by and starred the main performers from CBBC's series Horrible Histories.
33-year-old Debbie Maddox (Martha Howe-Douglas) becomes increasingly bored with her life as a suburban stay-at-home mother until an elf (Mathew Baynton) appears from a portal in her cupboard, insisting that she's the "chosen one" destined to save Yonderland. Reluctantly, Debbie agrees to meet with the Elders of the realm... only to discover that they've lost the scroll that explains what the chosen one is supposed to do. As it turns out, Yonderland is a silly, magical place, threatened by the evil Negatus (Simon Farnaby). It will take all of Debbie's resources to complete each week's quest in time to pick up her children from school.
Most of the cast play multiple roles, both physical performances and voices of puppet characters. The main cast are as follows:
On 22 March 2013, Sky1's Lucy Lumsden announced Yonderland, saying: "We are delighted to give the incredibly talented Horrible Histories cast the opportunity to write and star in a brand new show for the whole family on Sky1." The show was co-produced by Working Title Films. Principal filming under former HH director Steve Connelly began the following May.
The show initially grew out of the desire of its creators (Baynton, Farnaby, Howe-Douglas, Howick, Rickard and Willbond) to continue working together after Horrible Histories ceased production in 2012. The new standalone troupe wanted to maintain the sketch-based, character-driven comedy style from their previous series. They quickly settled on the fantasy quest genre, with its emphasis on individual short vignettes within the larger plot, as the logical next step.
At the same time, Baynton and Willbond had been developing a film idea about an ordinary person dragged into a parallel universe – specifically, a nostalgic fantasy adventure using puppetry rather than more modern animation techniques, in the vein of Labyrinth and The NeverEnding Story." This concept in turn naturally lent itself to the casting of sole female troupe member Howe-Douglas as the central heroine, with her five male costars in multiple roles as the different characters she meets in each episode. In terms of writing together for the first time as a troupe, Howick noted to The Guardian that "[By now] we're such a tight unit, we know exactly what the humour is, and what the tone is." Baynton agreed: "It just grew very nicely out of what happens when the six of us are together in a room."
...
Wikipedia