Channel 4 has announced that Aisling Bea will write and star in new comedy series Happy AF (working title).

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The comedian will team up with Catastrophe star Sharon Horgan for the six-part series about the – sometimes difficult – pursuit of happiness.

Bea plays foreign language school worker Aine, who's trying to put her life back together after a "teeny little nervous breakdown". Horgan will play her sister Shona.

Channel 4 describe the series as a "pin-sharp, poignant comedy which, with warmth and keen-edged wit, shows that the journey to happiness is harder for some than others."

Horgan and Clelia Mountford's production company Merman is producing the series for Channel 4, with My Mad Fat Diary director Alex Winckler on board to direct.

"This show is my baby and I am extremely excited about it," Bea said. "Sharon and I have been trying to make a baby for a few years now and in the last while we've gotten some extra help in and now finally I am pregnant with a show and can't wait to give birth to it, put it in a pram and show it to everyone. This is a metaphor for making TV by the way, I am not pregnant."

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The show is one of a number of new commissions announced by Channel 4. Benedict Cumberbatch is set to star in a new factual drama about the Brexit vote, while Kathy Burke is set to learn what it really means to be a woman in 2018 with her three-part series Kathy Burke: All Woman.

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