Having mocked Prince Charles rather extensively in The Windsors, Harry Enfield will move onto mocking another iconic Brit in his next TV project: he’s set to play Sir Richard Branson in a new series entitled Island Of Dreams.
George Jeffrie and Bert Tyler-Moore, who previously created The Windsors, will pen the pilot episode for Island Of Dreams. The show is based on the concept of celebrities visiting Enfield’s Branson on his private island, seeking advice from this comedy version of the Virgin founder.
The Radio Times broke the news, stating that the BBC show “draws heavily on a rich heritage of island-set TV shows, from Fantasy Island to Lost to Thunderbirds”.
The Beeb also apparently promised that we’ll see Branson “solving the problems of our most-loved and messed-up celebrities while they’re enjoying some well-deserved island luxury…but does Sir Richard have a more important masterplan – a dark secret involving interplanetary travel?”
The show is clearly based partially on truth, since Branson really does own the island of Necker (in the British Virgin Islands), and he has hosted many celebs there in real life (Princess Diana, Barack Obama, Kate Moss and Harry Styles have all apparently visited). But we’d expect Enfield and his writers to take a fair bit of artistic license in their portrayal of Branson and his idyllic island.
This is very much at the pilot episode stage right now, but we’ll keep you posted as the project develops.