Yahoo News Year of the Rabbit writers reveal if there'll be a season 2
If you've been watching the first series of Channel 4's Year of the Rabbit, then odds are that you've now got the taste – the taste! – and are hungry for more.
Tonight's (July 15) finale ended with a hint at the show's possible future, with an enigmatic figure (played, in a surprise cameo, by Jemaine Clement) revealing that Rabbit (Matt Berry) and his gang had "caught the attention" of the Queen, who had a special task in mind for them.
Speaking to Digital Spy about a potential second series, Year of the Rabbit writers Kevin Cecil and Andy Riley revealed that, while further episodes are yet to be greenlit, they have "sketched out" some ideas.
"It's a lot of work, so it's not like we've got all the stories [planned out] until we get the nod," Riley said. "When we get the nod, we will be working those out in earnest."
Cecil added: "We've got to sit down with Matt, and get Matt's take, and get his ideas. We've done some work [on series two] and there's a lot of work still to be done."
As to whether Clement's character might reappear in the next series, Cecil explained: "That would depend on Jemaine's availability – he's a very busy man! I'm a massive fan of his and I would write for him until the cows come home, but we haven't signed a contract with Jemaine yet."
The series' chief villainess, Keeley Hawes' scheming Lydia, also escaped justice in the final episode, with Riley confirming that there are plans in place to "bring her back at some point in the future".
"We don't yet know how much and in what capacity, because we haven't written it yet. But it's nice to have [that option]. We do kill off quite a lot of people, and we don't want everyone dead!"
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Reflecting on the first series of Year of the Rabbit, Cecil said it was "quite difficult" to craft a series that worked both as a laugh-out-loud sitcom and an action-packed Victorian crime thriller.
"It's quite hard to write a comedy, and it's quite hard to write a compelling police drama – when you do both, it's a nightmare!" he laughed.
Riley added: "In the old days, you never had to do this in sitcoms. When we were writing Black Books in the early 2000s, what you'd do back then – which was the norm for sitcoms at that point – was you'd do your six episodes, each of them was completely standalone, and then you'd choose the [transmission] order once they were filmed.
"Now, people want more than that."
"I'd like to think that there's still space for episodic comedy," Cecil said. "But certainly comedy and drama have 'borrowed each other's clothes' a lot over the last few years.
"And because we're doing the police genre, people are bringing to it the expectations of Line of Duty or something! We are in that genre as well."
Year of the Rabbit is available on DVD and digital from July 22.
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