BBC Three renews Witless for Season 3
David Farnor | On 24, Feb 2017
BBC Three’s Witless has been renewed for a third season.
Written by Lloyd Woolf and Joe Tucker and starring Kerry Howard (Him And Her, Young Hyacinth) and Zoe Boyle (Downton Abbey, Frontier), the series follows flatmates Leanne (Howard) and Rhona (Boyle) as their lives are thrown into disarray after witnessing a gangland shooting.
Season 1 saw Leanne and Rhona forced into Witness Protection, given new identities and left to fend for themselves in a grubby flat in Swindon, while attempting to avoid detection from the trigger happy teenage gang members on their tail. When Leanne got romantically entangled with Patrick (Samuel Anderson, Doctor Who, Trollied), though, they unwittingly becane entangled in the criminal world they were trying to escape.
A cliffhanger led to Season 2, which took the mixture of comedy and drama to a new level, with the pair taking matters into their own hands in their determination to escape Wit-Pro. Ditching the police and going on the run, the girls still wound up in the middle of the gangs hunting them, headed up by Willy Whelan (Francis Magee – Game of Thrones).
“BBC Three’s wonderfully silly crime caper manages to be funny and gripping, often at the same time,” we wrote in our review of Season 2. “It has your bum on the edge of your seat every time.”
The third season promises to continue to ramp things up with Leanne and Rhona getting closer to the end of their ordeal – but whether they make it out unscathed remains to be seen.
Kerry Howard says: “Beyond thrilled that Witless has a third series! It’s so wonderful to be a part of such a talented team on this dynamic show. I thought I could second guess our writers but I literally don’t have a clue where they will take the troublesome double-act that is Leanne and Rhona, I just pray they don’t kill us off! It’s amazing to get a hat-trick and I’m so grateful to BBC Three for putting their faith in this show and letting us grow.”
The five-episode third run was commissioned by Damian Kavanagh, Controller BBC Three, Gregor Sharp and Kate Daughton, Commissioning Editors, BBC Comedy. Charlotte Lewis and Andrew Chaplin return as Producer and Director (respectively), with Ben Farrell, Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woolf remaining as writers Executive Producers.
Shane Allen, Controller of Comedy Commissioning, adds: “Witless is the dream BBC Three sitcom – a whip smart concept, knockout funny writing, the dream double-act in Kerry and Zoe, a cast that launches new talents in a big way and highly ambitious direction. It’s got the lot. Here’s to going out on an adrenaline high.”
Season 1 and 2 are both available on BBC Three. See our guide to what box sets from the online channel are available on BBC iPlayer Add to Watchlist