Channel 4 to air Volodymyr Zelenskyy comedy show

Channel 4 is to air a comedy series starring Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the fictional president of Ukraine which he made in 2015, four years before he took office.

The series called Servant Of The People will begin on Sunday evening, after originally airing in Ukraine in 2015.

In the comedy, Zelenskyy plays a high school teacher called Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko who finds himself as the country's president after a video of him ranting against the government's corruption goes viral.

After assuming office, his character tries to live a normal life without all the privileges of being the country's leader and works hard to build a new country free of corruption.

The three-series-long show was made by Kvartal 95, a production company which Zelenskyy founded in 2003.

Prior to entering politics, the 44-year-old was a satirical actor and comedian, winning the Ukrainian version of Dancing with the Stars in 2006 and playing the voice of Paddington Bear in 2014.

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He also has a law degree from Kyiv National Economic University.

He became president in 2019, after securing 73% of the ballot and defeating sitting president Petro Poroshenko.

In his manifesto, Zelenskyy and his political party Servant of the People promised to tackle the country's long battle with corruption and bring peace in the eastern parts of the country.

At the time he was elected he already had 4.2 million followers on Instagram and has now amassed over 13.8 million followers on the app to date.

Channel 4’s chief content officer Ian Katz said: “We know from the huge audiences coming to our comprehensive news coverage of the war in Ukraine that our viewers have a real thirst to understand the conflict and the individuals who are shaping it.

“In the space of a few weeks, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has become one of the most admired and speculated about men in the world, and broadcasting our current affairs special, Zelenskyy: The Man Who Took On Putin, and Servant Of The People across Sunday night will give viewers access to deep insight into how he shot to political prominence, the foundations of his popular appeal and his intuitive grasp of how to exploit both traditional and social media.

“The battle in Ukraine is as much an information war as a military one and these two programmes will show that Zelenskyy was a formidable information warrior long before he was a war leader.”

Zelensky: The Man Who Took On Putin will air on Channel 4 at 6.45pm on Sunday, followed by three episodes of Servant Of The People at 10.35pm.

Series one and two of Servant Of The People will be available in full on All 4 at a later date.

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