Hyperdrive Cast News Posted by Ian Symes on 15th September 2005, 11:49 Short version: Nick Frost! Kevin Eldon!Long version, from Media Guardian: Spaced star shifts into Hyperdrive Jason Deans, broadcasting editor Thursday September 15, 2005 Nick Frost, best known for playing Simon Pegg’s sidekick in Spaced and Shaun of the Dead, has landed his first lead role in a TV comedy, playing a spaceship commander in new BBC2 show Hyperdrive. Frost’s character in Hyperdrive, space commander Henderson, is in charge of a 22nd century British spaceship tasked with trying to encourage aliens to relocate their businesses to Peterborough and take holidays in the Lake District. The comedy, set in 2151, has been described by executive producer Jon Plowman as a “hilarious version of Das Boot in space”. “Hyperdrive is partly about the crew of the HMS Camden Lock trying to persuade aliens to relocate to Britain while the Americans offer Florida, and partly about a group of people being stuck together in a confined space for a long time,” he said. During their space travels, commander Henderson and his crew have to deal with anti-gravity failures, annoying talking doors and wars with aliens. Commander Henderson is an optimistic but deluded man, who always thinks his orders are open to interpretation. Hyperdrive, which formerly had a working title Full Power, also stars Kevin Eldon – whose credits include Nighty Night and Big Train – as first officer York, a brilliant scientist and polymath. Other cast members include Miranda Hart as diplomatic officer Teal, who is in love with Henderson; Stephen Evans as manic-depressive navigator Vine; and Dan Antopolski as insubordinate technical officer Jeffers. The BBC2 comedy also features Petra Massey as pilot Sandstrom, an “enhanced human”, and Paterson Joseph, as the ambitious space marshal Clarke. Hyperdrive is being filmed in Manchester and is due to go out on BBC2 next year. The comedy has been written by Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley, who scripted the third series of Black Books. Alex Walsh-Taylor is producing, with John Henderson directing. I quoted the whole thing to save you registering for the site. Why you should have to register to read news is beyond me. Try Bug Me Not for passwords.
Alright, I know good actors sometimes do some absolute shit, but… consider my opinion on this thing COMPLETELY FUCKING CHANGED. I’m still worried that it’s going to invite comparisons with Red Dwarf, and we’re going to see people talking unfavourably about RD when discussing it, and also that it’s going to be little more than a lame knock-off. But frankly, I’d pay to watch Kevin Eldon sit there reading the phone book, so right now I’m prepared to be optimistic.
Also, the rest of the cast was looking distinctly underwhelming until I saw the name of Paterson “One Of The Best And Most Underrated Actors Working In British Television” Joseph…
The cast does inspire quite a bit of confidence, I must admit. This is definitely a ‘wait-and-see’er. I wonder if they’re filming in front of a studio audience? We could nip along.
Kevin Eldon, king of all hobbies that he is, has a rather lengthy CV…He’s mostly always brilliant, although he has been in some big piles of crap. I’ve only seen Nick Frost in a couple of things (and, with reference to another current thread on this site, his IMDB entry carries a load of stuff that are just features from the SotD DVD). This man is the funniest thing about a very funny film. The only thing that annoys me about this project is that we’ve been hearing so much about it for quite a while. It’s getting a bit dull just being told how good it’s going to be. The fact that it wont be shown until 2006 means that this wont be stopping anytime soon.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (HA!)
Oh no, please don’t remind us of the hideousness that was Hyperdrive. I almost went to barfcity when I gazed upon this topic.
