COLLISION COURSE
HUGH LAURIE’S spaceship is heading for disaster…
NEW COMEDY Avenue 5
Wed,10pm &10.35pm, Sky Comedy & Sky Showcase (box set, Sky Box SETS/NOW)
It’s time to rejoin the passengers and crew of Avenue 5 as the luxury spaceship continues its chaotic journey across the universe in the second season of the comedy.
The action picks up with Captain Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie) struggling to retain control after discovering that the ship is off course, and its eight-week cruise is now an eight-year journey.
He’s not the only one panicking. Outspoken passenger Karen (Rebecca Front) must accept that she’s to blame for the spacecraft veering so wildly off course.
‘Karen goes on quite a journey,’ says Front. ‘She thinks that she’s infallible, and actually she very definitely is not. Realising that she screwed up is a whole new experience for Karen.’
First, the crew must decide whether to tell the passengers the truth, especially as they are fast running out of food and currently hurtling towards the sun. But it seems Captain Clark, who it transpired is actually an actor, may have other things on his mind.
‘He has found a romantic interest, so that kind of gives him a new drive and a new focus, and another thing to juggle on the ship,’ says Lenora Crichlow, who plays senior engineer Billie.
Meanwhile, with the authorities on Earth hatching a radical plan to solve the problem, will Avenue 5 ever make it safely back home?
‘Just when you think things are calming down, they ramp back up,’ says Crichlow. ‘Alliances are formed – and enemies are formed, too.’