BBC, HBO announce ?Family Tree? co-production

MUMBAI: BBC and HBO have announced that ?Family Tree?, a new eight-part comedy series co-written and co-created by filmmaker Christopher Guest ?Best In Show? and Jim Piddock and starring Chris O?Dowd ?Bridesmaids?, is in production in the UK.

The show is being directed by Guest. Filming will continue until early next year on location in the UK and Los Angeles, to air on BBC Two and HBO next year.

Chris O?Dowd will be joined by Nina Conti ?For Your Consideration? in the role of his sister Bea, and Tom Bennett The Hunt For Tony Blair? playing his best friend Pete.

?Family Tree? follows the world and journey of 30-year-old Tom Chadwick (Chris O?Dowd). Having recently lost his job and girlfriend, Tom has a rather unsure sense of his own identity. But when he inherits a mysterious box of belongings from a great aunt that he never met, he starts investigating his family lineage and uncovers a whole world of unusual stories and characters and a growing sense of who he is and who his real family are.

?Family Tree? will be a single-camera, improvisational, documentary-style comedy, a style that Christopher Guest?s films have pioneered.

BBC Two controller Janice Hadlow said, ?I am delighted to welcome Christopher Guest to BBC Television. It will be his first television series for British audiences and one I am proud to have here on the BBC. It has a stellar cast led by the fantastic Chris O?Dowd and is an exciting collaboration with NBCU International and HBO. Family Tree will form a key part of the channel?s comedy next year.?