2008 Funny Women Awards winner and comedy powerhouse Katherine Ryan is to play her comedy idol, the dear departed Joan Rivers in the new series of Sky’s Urban Myths.
Ryan will play her hero opposite Jessica Barden, star of Netflix’s The End of the F***ing World, as Barbra Streisand in the half-hour film. Oh yes and this short will be Sue Perkins‘ directorial debut.
The episode is inspired by Joan Rivers’ experience of a play, Driftwood, in which she starred in with the 16-year-old Barbra Streisand. Still Joan Molinksy then, Rivers was then a struggling club comic wishing to enter the world of more serious art. Without reading the play, Rivers accepted the role of Man in black (gender-swapped to Women in black) only for it to transpire that her character and Streisand’s, Lorna, share a love scene together…
This will be one of four other Urban Myths episodes released on Sky.