A new South African sitcom called
FONT - produced by comedian
Desmond Dube and starring
Darren Maule in the title role - premieres on SABC3 next month.
Some serious South African comic weight has been thrown into the production, from producer Dube to stars Darren Maule (
Hard Copy) and top stand-up comic
Krijay Govender, to a writing team that includes Kagiso Lediga and David Kibuuka, who recently starred together in the feature film Bunny Chow (for which both were
recently nominated for SAFTA Awards).
Th show is about a staff of no-hopers who work in the backroom of a fictitious print shop in Orange Grove, Johannesburg, called Font and Sons.
The owner, Henry Font, provides a safe haven for a ragtag bunch of workers: Branden (
Denzel Edgar), the technician and Lothario; Layla (Govender), a good girl from Durban; Clyde (
Bryan van Niekerk), an eccentric designer; and Dora (
Welile K. Tembe), the local sandwich seller.
But their world is threatened when Henry is killed in a freak accident, and with an inept enthusiasm his son, Luke Font (Maule), attempts to take command of the business in spite of every obstacle put in his way by the existing staff.
The show is directed by John Barker of Bunny Chow and Cobus Roussouw, longtime collaborator with Desmond Dube on
Dube on 2, Dube on Monday and The Comedy Cabin.
Desmond Dube himself has a recurring role as Herbert Ledwaba, an inept policeman who frequents the print shop.
"It's been a wild ride", says Dube. "It's been a long and hard road, and comedy's no joke!".
FONT represents the first foray into comedy for production house Curious Pictures. Until FONT, Curious were associated mainly with television drama, having made such productions as Hard Copy,
The Lab, Tsha Tsha and the Heartlines movie series.
The company was recently nominated for a staggering 35 SAFTA Awards, which will be announced later this year.
"We looked at sitcoms in South Africa and thought: what can we do to liven up the medium?", said executive producer David Jammy of Curious Pictures.
"We decided to make a sitcom the way sitcoms are meant to be made - as pieces of collaborative theatre with a live audience, and with a great deal of teamwork between actors and writers."
FONT premieres on SABC3 on Thursday 11 October 2007, at 21h30. There are 26 episodes in the first season.
TVSA's FONT Mini-Site