“I’M VERY PROUD of it,” says Jack Whitehall of his new show Bounty Hunters, a Sky Original Production that kicks off on Sky One tonight.
And so he should be. The high-octane show is a total departure for Whitehall, who can usually be found skewering the world of dating in his live stand-up, or putting up with James Corden’s merciless mocking on Sky One’s A League Of Their Own.
Co-written by Whitehall and his childhood friend Freddie Syborn, Bounty Hunters is part-comedy, part-thriller, jetting between Brooklyn, Mexico and Wimbledon. Whitehall plays Barnaby, an uptight, bookish PhD student who finds himself at the centre of a blood antiquities scandal thanks to a dodgy deal masterminded by his dad.
To help reclaim lost funds and save their dad’s antiques business, Barnaby and his sister Leah (Charity Wakefield) seek the help of bounty hunter Nina Morales (played by the Oscar-nominated Rosie Perez), a no-nonsense New Yorker who enjoys nothing better than a good drug lord shake-up.
“We wanted to write a show that had a lot of scale and was very ambitious. There are over 120 locations and lots of action set pieces,” Whitehall says of the series, which sees him breaking and entering, masterminding police escapes and hunting down ransoms.
“There was quite a bit of stunt work,” the comedian says, although he admits he had to work with a body double for the car chase scenes:
“I wasn’t allowed to do that [the chase] because I can’t drive.”
While Whitehall’s bread and butter is stand-up and panel comedy, the 29-year-old is no stranger to physical challenges thanks to his five years on A League Of Their Own, where he’s done everything from battling a 420lb bodybuilder to tying himself up as a penalty target for Alan Shearer. ”I’m pretty fearless now… and stupid,” he admits.
Bounty Hunters forms part of the new-look Sky One’s bigger and bolder autumn/winter schedule, joining proven big hitters like Modern Family and Strike Back, as well as new Sky Original Productions like Living The Dream and The Russell Howard Hour.
Autumn is a competitive time in the world of TV, as viewers settle in for the colder weather and networks battle to hold their attention, but Whitehall is certain he’s created something special. ”[I]t’s hard to write something that feels truly original and distinctive and I think we’ve achieved that,” he says. “And, it’s funny.”
Want a taste of the action? Bounty Hunters starts tonight, Wednesday October 25th at 10pm exclusively on Sky One.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say