David Farnor | On 02, Jul 2014

Yonderland has been commissioned by Sky for a second season of motherhood, wizardry and surreal puppetry.

The family series, created, written by and starring Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard and Ben Willbond (with puppets by Baker Coogan), won hearts when it premiered last year on Sky 1. Now, the Working Title production will be internationally distributed by Sky Vision, while a second run is set to return in 2015, as part of BSkyB’s commitment to investing in British shows.

Indeed, this latest Sky 1 commission closely follows the recent news of a new comedy from Craig Cash, After Hours, which is a six-part comedy series starring Ardal O’Hanlon, John Thomson and Jamie Winstone, as well as Micky Flanagan’s first ever documentary series, Micky Flanagan Hits the Road. This year Sky will invest £600 million a year in original British content and production across its portfolio of channels. This includes home-grown content such as entertainment quiz A League of Their Own, dramas, such as Moonfleet, Fleming and A Young Doctor’s Notebook, comedies, such as Stella and factual shows, such as Karl Pilkington: The Moaning of Life.

Yonderland follows the adventures of mum, aka The Chosen One, Debbie Maddox (Martha Howe-Douglas) who at the end of series one, rescued Elf and Nick the Stick from try-hard overlord Negatus’ lair and came face to face for the first time with his boss, the evil Imperatrix. Season 2 promises “many more magical treats of silliness” and will see Debbie fighting an increasingly hard battle to keep her family life and her job as world saver separate.

As husband Peter’s (Dan Skinner) paranoia about strange goings on in the kitchen cupboard grows, Imperatrix intensifies her efforts to rid the realm of the final obstacle to total domination: Debbie of Maddox (the ‘of’ is optional). And all this while Debbie is being endlessly called upon by the Council of Elders to help them with tasks that reach well beyond her Chosen One remit.

Adam MacDonald, Director of Sky 1, said: “We are incredibly proud to be able to bring Yonderland back for a second joyful series. The show epitomises Sky 1, it is a brilliantly creative, cheeky, laugh-out-loud show that the whole family can relish.”

Filming will commence this autumn with the series set to return to Sky 1 in 2015.

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