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Funland

 

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Funland



 
 
Funland is a comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
 / thriller serial, produced by the BBC that was first screened from Sunday 23 October 2005, on the digital channel BBC Three
BBC Three

BBC Three is a television channel from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, Freeview , IPTV and Satellite television platforms. The channel is described by the BBC as an outlet for 'New drama, talent, comedy, films, and accessible news'....
. Created by Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson

Jeremy Dyson is an England screenwriter and, with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, makes up The League of Gentlemen .Dyson was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, and "went to Leeds Grammar School....
 (of The League of Gentlemen) and Simon Ashdown
Simon Ashdown

Simon Ashdown is a United Kingdom television writer. He is probably best known as being a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award-winning EastEnders writer....
, the series consists of a sixty-minute opening episode followed by ten half-hour installments.

Plot summary
The series followed the dark and seedy tale of a group of people, all interlinked through family, work or debt. It started with Shirley Woolf and his wife Connie's feud to separate them from Shirley's mother Mercy.






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Encyclopedia


Funland is a comedy
Comedy

Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western culture origins are found in Ancient Greece....
 / thriller serial, produced by the BBC that was first screened from Sunday 23 October 2005, on the digital channel BBC Three
BBC Three

BBC Three is a television channel from the BBC broadcasting via digital cable, Freeview , IPTV and Satellite television platforms. The channel is described by the BBC as an outlet for 'New drama, talent, comedy, films, and accessible news'....
. Created by Jeremy Dyson
Jeremy Dyson

Jeremy Dyson is an England screenwriter and, with Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, makes up The League of Gentlemen .Dyson was born in Leeds, Yorkshire, England, and "went to Leeds Grammar School....
 (of The League of Gentlemen) and Simon Ashdown
Simon Ashdown

Simon Ashdown is a United Kingdom television writer. He is probably best known as being a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award-winning EastEnders writer....
, the series consists of a sixty-minute opening episode followed by ten half-hour installments.

Cast


  • Daniel Mays – Carter Krantz
  • Kris Marshall
    Kris Marshall

    Christopher "Kris" Marshall is an England actor best known for his role as Nick Harper in My Family....
     – Dudley Sutton
  • Sarah Smart
    Sarah Smart

    Sarah Smart is an England actor.Her career started as a child, notably in the television series Woof!. She is best known for a series of well-regarded television roles including Virginia Braithwaite, lesbian daughter of a lottery winning family in the comedy drama At Home with the Braithwaites....
     – Lola Sutton
  • Ian Puleston-Davies
    Ian Puleston-Davies

    Ian Puleston-Davies is a British actor and writer. He has starred in the ITV drama Vincent alongside Ray Winstone, and "Ghostboat" , alongside David Jason....
     – Shirley Woolf
  • Judy Parfitt
    Judy Parfitt

    Judy Parfitt is an England theatre, film and television series actor who began her career on stage in 1954....
     – Mercy Woolf
  • Frances Barber
    Frances Barber

    Frances Barber is an Olivier Award-nominated English actor with a long and distinguished stage career. She has also worked extensively in BBC, Granada and ITV television drama....
     – Connie Woolf
  • Roy Barraclough
    Roy Barraclough

    Roy Barraclough Order of the British Empire is a comic actor. He is best known for his role as the shifty, lugubrious landlord of the Rovers Return, Alec Gilroy in the long running United Kingdom TV soap opera Coronation Street where he formed an on-screen partnership with Bet Lynch ....
     – The Mayor
  • Mark Gatiss
    Mark Gatiss

    Mark Gatiss is an England actor, screenwriter and novelist. He is best known as a member of the comedy team The League of Gentlemen, and is one of only three people to have both written for and acted in Doctor Who....
     – Ambrose Chapfel
  • Cheryl Campbell
    Cheryl Campbell

    Cheryl Campbell in is an England actor of Stage , film and television....
     – Lola's Mum
  • Ewan Bailey
    Ewan Bailey

    Ewan Bailey is an actor, writer and voice artist located in Central London, best known for writing and performing in The Sunday Format, BBC Radio 4's satire of British Sunday newspapers, Funland, BBC Three's darker than dark comedy set in the English seaside town of Blackpool, HBO's recent epic series Rome and the recent, highly...
     – The Finn
  • Burn Gorman
    Burn Gorman

    Burn Gorman is an United States-born United Kingdom actor and musician. Burn is most known for his roles as Owen Harper in Torchwood and as William Guppy in Bleak House ....
     - Tim Timothy
  • Emily Aston - Ruby Woolf
  • Kenny Doughty
    Kenny Doughty

    Kenny Doughty is an England actor. Married to the actress Caroline Carver....
     - Liam Woolf
  • Ryan Pope
    Ryan Pope

    Ryan Pope is an United States musician who lives in Lawrence, Kansas....
     - Chris Church
  • Philip Jackson
    Philip Jackson (actor)

    Philip Jackson is an England actor, singer and television presenter, best known for his role as Chief Inspector Japp in the television series Poirot....
     - Leo Finch
  • Cheryl Campbell
    Cheryl Campbell

    Cheryl Campbell in is an England actor of Stage , film and television....
     - Lola's Mother
  • Beth Cordingly
    Beth Cordingly

    Beth Cordingly is an England actress most famous for her role as PC Kerry Young in ITV1 police drama The Bill....
     - Vienna Keen
  • Kevin Eldon
    Kevin Eldon

    Kevin Eldon is English people actor and comedian. He has appeared prominently in several of the most critically-acclaimed United Kingdom comedy television shows of the 1990s, notably Fist of Fun, I'm Alan Partridge, Big Train, Brass Eye and Jam ....
     - Shadowman
  • Simon Greenall
    Simon Greenall

    Simon Greenall is a United Kingdom actor, writer and voice artist. He has appeared in a wide variety of roles in television, film, radio and the theatre, and is probably best known for his role as Michael in the TV series I'm Alan Partridge and as the voice of headmaster Iqbal in Bromwell High....
     - Ken Cryer
  • Paul Courtenay Hyu - Bryan Luke
  • Katrina Rafferty - The Teddy Picker Girl


Plot summary


The series followed the dark and seedy tale of a group of people, all interlinked through family, work or debt. It started with Shirley Woolf and his wife Connie's feud to separate them from Shirley's mother Mercy. And the arrival of a southern stranger and a prudish couple from Stoke. As the series developed more sinister plotlines and characters were introduced, the corrupt Mayor of Blackpool, the mysterious figure of power Bridewell and a strange hooded figure. Other mysteries arrive such as the disappearance of the last vicar of Ambrose Chapel, what lies behind the door opened by the mysterious key and what are Mercy's plans for Blackpool.

All was revealed in the final episode, as the screeching figure in the parka arrives with a package for Mercy, as she, Shirley and Carter are situated at the very top of Blackpool tower in a raging gale on the night of the Cross Ball. The package is opened, and the deeds to the entire Lancashire coast, "Wax's way"; stretching all the way to Lytham St. Annes and Mercy reveals her plan as her iron grip over the bustling seaside towns tighten following her purchase of the tower. But the paperwork flies out of her hands and Shirley climbs up the tower framework to reach it but is shot by Mercy and plummets to his death.

The last scene as Carter and Lola walk along the beach, they find the deeds and know, now that Mercy has been imprisoned for her crimes; that they, and the town of Blackpool are safe.

DVD releases

The complete boxset was released in 2006.

DVD Release date
The Complete First Series (2 discs) 26 June 2006


External links

  • "" Official Press Pack
  • "" script at BBC Writers Room
  • at BBC Press Office