Sightseers to open in Cannes

For quite some time we’ve had our own sights set on this dark comedy feature from beardy genius director Ben Wheatley. Written by and starring two brilliant performers, Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, Sightseers tells the story of Chris and Tina who embark on a life-changing trip around England in Chris’s beloved caravan. Sounds like Nuts in May meets the Wicker Man! The full line-up here 

Steve has previously worked on the BBC’s People Like Us and Tittytittybangbang, as well as C4’s The Mighty Boosh and Noel Fielding’s Luxury Comedy. With his stand-up partner Tom Meeten, he’s currently performing in Club Fantastico at the Vandella (which is incidentally or not a naturist resort in the West Indies) in Shepherd’s Bush. The Velvet Onion recently did a rather nice review about them here 

Alice Lowe started her comedy career collaborating with Robert Webb and David Mitchell and Boosh director Paul King, before joining with fellow Cambridge graduates, Richard Ayoade and Matt Holness on Garth Marenghi’s Fright Knight, which was nominated for the 2000 Perrier Award in Edinburgh. This went on to become the cult C4 series Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and since then she’s done…well….loads, including Alan Partridge, Hot Fuzz, The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh and Horrible Histories. In 2010 she and Jacqueline Wright collaborated on twelve comedy shorts – one a month – as part of Jackal Films

Sightseers came about after the BBC turned it down as a series because it was too dark. Bah! However, after Edgar Wright saw the short film, he brought it to supremo comedy/sci-fi/geekchic company Big Talk (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Attack the Block, Rev, Him & Her……yeah, they’re damn gooood) and the rest is history.

With such gloriously original and talented folk on board this 90 minutes of kagool-clad comic-horror, it’s bound to be a real treat for those who like their comedy bleak and bloody!