For the fifth year running, The Bottle Yard Studios welcomes the return of Sky 1 HD’s Trollied, which begins filming for its fifth series today.

Produced by Roughcut TV, the consistently popular comedy series has been made at The Bottle Yard Studios since it began in 2011. A purpose built, full scale supermarket set built on site forms the setting of Valco in Warrington, where the comedy centres on the everyday lives of staff, customers and managers. Series five comprises eight episodes and a Christmas Special and will shoot for nine weeks. The new series is due to hit TV screens later this year.

The new series sees the return of long term cast member Jason Watkins to The Bottle Yard, who recently won the Best Leading Actor Bafta® for his outstanding performance in The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, also made at the Studios. Other cast includes Stephen Tompkinson (Wild at Heart), Sarah Parish (W1A),
Jack Carroll (Britain’s Got Talent), Channel Cresswell (This is England 86) and Aisling Bea (Edinburgh Fringe So You Think You’re Funny Award) as well as cast regulars Rita May, Carl Rice, Beverly Rudd, Lorraine Cheshire, Faye Mckeever, Victor McGuire and Dominic Coleman.

Head of Production at Roughcut TV, Tim Sealey, said: “We are delighted to be returning to the Bottle Yard for the fifth time. The team here do a great job of making us feel welcome. We were the first to use the Bottle Yard in 2011 and since then we have seen the studio grow each year so that now it has established itself as a great place to shoot. With Sky’s support, we hope to be coming back here for years to come.”

Fiona Francombe, The Bottle Yard Studios’ Managing Director said: “The Trollied team have established a real home with us over the past five years and are always a joy to have on site. Last year marked a real period of growth which saw more productions than ever coming through The Bottle Yard’s doors, yet as we grow, we remain proud to work with those companies who recognised the potential of our space in the early years, as Roughcut TV did when they built their impressive supermarket set here. After half a decade of working together, it’s second nature having them here.

“It’s also fantastic to see Sky and Roughcut TV’s proactive approach to cutting carbon across Trollied’s production, by using sustainable transport, props and lighting and implementing albert+, the industry’s best practice carbon reduction scheme. This really chimes with the green ethos we are continually developing here at Bottle Yard, particularly during Bristol’s year as European Green Capital.”

The Sky1 sitcom has already had more than 40 episodes broadcast since 2011, when it debuted with two million viewers – the highest rating multi-channel comedy launch in British TV history. It went on to make a second and third series as well as two Christmas specials. Series four filmed in 2014 for seven weeks, and was broadcast in November 2014.

Trollied is written by Paul Doolan, Abi Wilson, Ben Edwards, Rachael New, Jon Hunter and Hannah George. It is produced by Alex Smith and Nick Goding, directed by Jonathan Gershfiled, Sarah O’Gorman and Paul Harrision. The Executive Producer is Ash Atalla.