IFC and the British broadcaster Channel 4 have teamed to produce the original comedy series Year of the Rabbit starring Matt Berry. The first season will feature six episodes.
The series follows a group of Victorian detectives - Detective Inspector Rabbit (Berry), a hardened booze-hound who's seen it all, and his new, hapless, by-the-books partner (played by Freddie Fox). While investigating a local murder, the chief of police's lewd but insightful adoptive daughter (played by Susan Wokoma) becomes the country's first female officer. Together, the trio must fight crime while rubbing shoulders with street gangs, crooked politicians, Bulgarian princes, spiritualists, music hall stars and the Elephant Man.
Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil (Veep) created the comedy. They will executive produce with Berry and director Ben Taylor (Catastrophe). Objective Fiction will produce.
"Like everyone else in comedy, we have been trying to develop a Victorian era procedural cop show for years so between that and stalking Matt Berry since he was a guest star on Portantia, we could not be more thrilled to partner with Channel 4 on this brilliantly funny period piece," said Christine Lubrano, Senior Vice President of Programming, IFC. "The concept, the writing and the cast are simply perfect for IFC's 'slightly off' comedy brand."
