The Abbey (TV series)

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The Abbey is a British sitcom about dysfunctional celebrities with various vices that seek sanctuary at The Abbey to overcome their problems. The Abbey is made by Baby Cow Productions owned by Steve Coogan. It is written by Morwenna Banks, directed by Jenny Campbell and executively produced by Henry Normal.

Banks stars as ex-rock star Marianne Hope who opened The Abbey as a retreat offering new age therapies, after her very public nervous breakdown. Omid Djalili plays The Abbey's owner Tony. Russell Brand is a DJ seemingly nonchalant about his crack cocaine addiction, who even has to resort to sticking a can a whipped cream up his nose to satisfy his addiction.. Liz Smith plays a pervy pensioner with an addiction to sex . Tamsin Egerton plays a model with an eating disorder, who eats toliet roll in order to avoid hunger pangs. Miranda Hart plays the suicidal wife of a disgraced MP, obsessed with cleaning, cooking and being lovely to everyone in the most obtuse way! The show also stars Reece Shearsmith as a 'doctor' and councellor and Marti Pellow as Marianne Banks estranged husband.

The show was broadcast on Wednesday 14th February 2007 on ITV1 at 10:30pm and served as a pilot, hoping to become a series if the one-off was popular enough. The episode gained an estimated 2.3 million audience and unfortunately, somewhat poor reviews.