Breeders returns for a second series

Critically acclaimed Sky original starring Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard

Sky original Breeders, the honest and uncompromising comedy about the challenges of parenthood, starring Martin Freeman (Fargo, Sherlock, Black Panther) and Daisy Haggard (Back To Life, Episodes, Black Mirror), has been renewed for a second series. The acclaimed first series is currently available on demand on Sky One and on streaming service NOW TV.

Sky original Breeders is produced by Avalon and FX Productions for Sky and FX Networks. The first series has gained widespread critical acclaim:

"beyond comedy and towards something rare...Writers Simon Blackwell, Chris Addison and Freeman himself have given us not only a couple we can honestly believe in but also a drama for modern times" The Observer

"Smart, spiky and hilarious" - ???? Radio Times

"Freeman and Haggard immediately gel as a finely tuned double act playing off each other with exquisite timing." - ????" Mail on Sunday

"A hilariously no-holds-barred look at the real challenges of parenting in the contemporary world... beautifully observed and very funny - ?????." Heat Magazine

Breeders is one of the latest in a run of original comedies launching on Sky One with audiences of more than one million - including Avenue 5 (Starring Hugh Laurie), Intelligence (with Nick Mohammed and David Schwimmer), Hitmen (Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins) and Code 404 (Daniel Mays, Stephen Graham and Anna Maxwell Martin).

Academy Award(R)-nominee and double Emmy(R) Award-winner Simon Blackwell served as showrunner and created the series with double Emmy Award and Directors Guild of America Award winner Chris Addison and Emmy and BAFTA(R)-winning Martin Freeman. Executive producers are Blackwell, Addison, Freeman, Richard Allen-Turner, Rob Aslett, David Martin, Jon Thoday, Toby Welch and Michael Wiggs. Ben Palmer is co-executive producer. Tilusha Ghelani, Sky commissioning editor, will executive produce for Sky.

Jon Mountague, Director of Comedy, Sky Studios, said: "With scripts of this calibre, hilarity and honesty, and a cast lead by the uniquely relatable Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard, it's no surprise Breeders struck such a huge chord with viewers. Hats off to Simon Blackwell, Chris Addison and the team - we can't wait to give birth to a second series."

Martin Freeman commented: "So pleased we get another go at Breeders. I reckon the next one will be even better. It's such a pleasure working with this team... we'll see you all soon. Well, not soon. But at some point, honest."

Chris Addison said: "We're absolutely thrilled that Sky and FX have decided to let us torture Paul and Ally a bit more with another season of parenting trauma. That's entirely because we've got more of the story we're excited to tell and definitely not just because it's basically free therapy for us. I flatly deny that."

Simon Blackwell added: "It was a thrill to be able to make the first season of Breeders - Sky, FX, our production team, crew and amazing cast made it a fantastic creative experience. So to be able to explore even more parental struggles in series 2 is the icing on a cake that we've checked carefully for any possible trace of peanuts."

In Breeders, Martin Freeman stars as Paul, a caring father discovering he's not quite the man he thought he was. His partner in this impossibly steep parental climb is Ally (Daisy Haggard), who runs a recording studio, makes Paul laugh and has the ability to read a story to their children while she's technically asleep.

In the first series, Paul and Ally are juggling fulltime careers, aging parents, a mortgage, upheavals in their relationship and the unenviable curveballs of parenting their young children, Luke (George Wakeman) and Ava (Jayda Eyles). When Ally's estranged father Michael (Michael McKean) appears on their doorstep, the family essentially takes on a third child, but this one comes with baggage and opinions. Paul's own parents, Jackie (Joanna Bacon) and Jim (Alun Armstrong), are on hand to help out, but their generation does parenting a little differently... .

Note To Editors:

Breeders series one critical acclaim:

"beyond comedy and towards something rare...Writers Simon Blackwell, Chris Addison and Freeman himself have given us not only a couple we can honestly believe in but also a drama for modern times" Euan Ferguson, The Observer

"terrific: dark, fresh, brutal, funny... Simon Blackwell and Chris Addison have managed the near-impossible by creating a parenting comedy that is not twee and makes the tired tropes of sleep deprivation and school-catchment obsession funny." ???? Carol Midgley, The Times

"crafted to perfection, Blackwell supplies a steady stream of laugh-out-loud lines and Freeman and Haggard immediately gel as a finely tuned double act playing off each other with exquisite timing" ???? Mark Wareham, Mail On Sunday

"Martin Freeman and Daisy Haggard excel in parenting sitcom with bite... Smart, spiky and hilarious" ???? Morgan Jeffery, Radio Times

"For Breeders to deal with darker topics, including postnatal depression and what Blackwell calls "grief sex", it adopts the knife-edge tone that defines the best modern TV comedy: able to nest real, wrenching drama into outlandish scenarios and vice versa, rather than offering viewers a predictable series of set-ups and positive punchlines" Tom Faber, Financial Times

"The parent-torment sitcom Breeders, now on episode three, 'No Accident', is beginning to emulsify nicely... Breeders whizzes by, all zingers and howlers." ???? David Sexton, Evening Standard

"Refreshingly truthful parenting comedy" ???? Ian Hyland, The Mirror

"a hilariously no-holds-barred look at the real challenges of parenting in the contemporary world... a brilliantly shocking opening that sets the tone for a show, which is beautifully observed and very funny" ????? Boyd Hilton, Heat Magazine

"honest and uncompromising comedy pulling no punches as it explores the pressures of raising a family. Millions of mums and dads across Britain will sympathise... prepare for laughs, tears and plenty of swearing" ???? Sean Marland, TV Times Magazine

"a corker of an introduction... uncompromising but hilarious" ????? Mike Ward, Daily Star

"Freeman and Daisy Haggard, who plays Paul's wife, Ally, are excellent as the couple whose united front cracks as sleep deprivation kicks in." Victoria Segal, The Sunday Times

"When the great corona-shutdown kicks in, the Breeders crew might find they've made the most accidentally zeitgeisty programme of all time" Victoria Coren Mitchell, The Telegraph

"No-holds-barred ferocity... the show is fearless" James Jackson, The Times

"Welcome to the set of Breeders, a new show that takes the best ingredients of Motherland and Outnumbered - middle-class dramas about parenting - and adds a large dose of the sheer fury that it can induce... Bitingly funny" Nicole Lampert, Daily Mail

About Sky

With 24 million customers across seven countries, Sky is Europe's leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Our 31,000 employees help connect our customers with the very best of Sports, News, the arts and to our own local, original content. Following the success of Sky originals like Chernobyl, Patrick Melrose, Das Boot and Gommorah we launched Sky Studios and now plan to more than double our investment in original drama and comedy over the next five years.

Our technology allows customers to watch what they want, when they want, how they want, and as we connect millions of families to content they love, it is our responsibility to do it safely - that's why we offer services like Sky Broadband Buddy and the Sky Kids app. And our online streaming service, NOW TV, brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service.

We also believe that a company of our scale has a responsibility that goes beyond our business, and into the community. Our Sky Ocean Rescue campaign has reached millions across Europe, we're on track to be free of single-use plastic by 2020, we're investing �25million over five years in ocean-saving tech and we're a proud employer - recognised by The Times and Stonewall for our approach to inclusivity.

About Avalon

Avalon is a multi-award-winning talent management, television production and live promotion group with offices in London, New York and Los Angeles. Avalon and ARG, the talent management arm, has discovered and represents many artists that are household names, both in the UK, the USA, and around the world.

Avalon is the number one true independent television production company in the UK and produces numerous ground-breaking television shows including: multi-Emmy and Peabody award winner Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO); multi-award winning and Emmy-nominated Catastrophe (Channel 4/Amazon Prime Video); RTS and Rose d'Or winning Not Going Out (the BBC's longest running sitcom currently on air); BAFTA and RTS-nominated Taskmaster (DAVE/UKTV); Sky's most successful new entertainment launch since 2010, The Russell Howard Hour (Sky); the forthcoming Breeders, co-created by Martin Freeman, Chris Addison and Simon Blackwell (Sky/FX); and two seasons of Wyatt Cenac's Problem Areas (HBO). As well as iconic shows including: Fantasy Football League(BBC/ITV); the multi-BAFTA award-winning TV Burp (ITV); and seven seasons of Workaholics (Comedy Central USA).

Live, Avalon produced Newman and Baddiel: Live at Wembley, the UK's first arena comedy show; Jerry Springer: The Opera, the first West End show to win all four UK 'Best New Musical' awards; and has continued to produce live shows globally, as well as promoting more winners and nominees of the prestigious Edinburgh Comedy Award than any other company.

For Avalon news visit: www.avalonuk.com/press or follow @avalonent

ABOUT FX

FX is the flagship general entertainment basic cable channel of FX Networks. Launched in June of 1994, FX is carried in 85 million homes. The diverse schedule features a growing roster of critically-acclaimed and award-winning hit drama series including Snowfall, Pose, Mayans M.C., Taboo and the upcoming Y: The Last Man; the critically-acclaimed limited series American Horror Story, Fargo, American Crime Story, FEUD, Fosse/Verdon and the upcoming Shogun; acclaimed hit comedy series including Atlanta, Better Things, What We Do in the Shadows and Breeders; the half-hour series Mr Inbetween; a slate of docuseries and documentary features, including The Weekly with The New York Times, The Most Dangerous Animal of All, and the upcoming AKA Jane Roe; and the FX Original Movie A Christmas Carol. FX is the former home of the critically-acclaimed and award-winning hit drama series The Shield, Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me, Damages, Sons of Anarchy, Justified and The Americans. The network's library of acquired box-office hit movies is unmatched by any ad-supported television network.