Comedy Showcase Ladies and Gentlemen

Penned by Peep Show writers Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, Ladies and Gentlemen follows the single lives and awkward loves of a group of 30-something friends who share a house in London. Oh, and it’s 1865. Horatio is the youngest son of a Baron, a man incapable of earning a living who gets by because of his superior social position. Freddie is a middle-class clerk in a dead-end job who is obsessed with status and manners. Jack is a doctor and a serial romantic – there isn’t a woman in London who he hasn’t tried to become engaged to. Alice is Horatio’s lover, far cleverer than he is but still not as clever as she thinks she is. Louisa is the less attractive sister of Alice, and resolutely left on the shelf despite her youth. Finally, Emily is the fairly incompetent but pretty maid who Freddie continually lusts after but can never bring himself to do anything about. When Horatio’s uncle dies and the entire estate is left to him, Horatio suddenly finds himself the number one suspect for murder. Did Horatio kill his uncle to get his hands on the estate? Or was it his cousin, the daughter of his dead uncle, the beautiful Elizabeth, who was recently betrothed to his friend and flatmate Jack? Ladies and Gentlemen was originally shown in Channel 4’s Comedy Showcase season: six 30-minute specials starring some of the UK’s best established and up-and- coming comedic talent.