Clooney’s adaptation of Catch-22 to be shown on British TV next year

GEORGE CLOONEY’S adaptation of Catch-22 is to air on Channel 4 in the UK.

The six-part series based on Joseph Heller’s 1961 novel will be screened on the channel next year.

Executive-produced, directed by and costarring Clooney, inset, the drama follows Captain John Yossarian (Christopher Abbott), a US air force soldier in the Second World War who can not understand why thousands of people who have never met him want to kill him.

Yossarian, driven half-mad by his will to live, wants to complete his service and leave, but his efforts are blocked by ‘Catch-22’.

The bureaucratic rule states that pilots don’t have to fly if they are certified insane, but the same rule also states that being driven mad by fear is a rational emotion, which therefore means the individual is sane and able to carry on with the mission. Clooney will play Scheisskopf, a training commander based at the cadet school in California. “I’m very excited to be working with Channel 4 to bring the classic Catch-22 to their channel,” he said. “I couldn’t think of a better place to be doing this.” Kyle Chandler and Hugh Laurie also star in the US subscription on-demand service Hulu drama, with further cast to be announced. Channel 4 director of programmes Ian Katz said: “It’s hard to imagine a work that speaks more directly to the frequently absurd times we live in, and to the growing sense of individual distrust of institutions, than Catch-22.”