OUT OF THIS WORLD

Five reasons to watch Sky One’s new space comedy Avenue 5

There’s more than one sci-fi series blasting into orbit this week. Star Trek: Picard is joined in the space race by Avenue 5, Sky One’s new 10-part comedy set aboard a luxury spacecraft that takes tourists on trips around the solar system. Here are five reasons to tune in…

1 IT STARS HUGH LAURIE

After his recent role in Catch-22, the former House actor plays Captain Ryan Clark, who’s in command of Avenue 5, a luxury spaceship that offers interplanetary tourism 40 years in the future. Ryan is everything you want in a space captain – charismatic, confident and personable – but when the vessel is hit by an asteroid and suffers a ‘gravity flip’, will he be able to cope? With passengers injured and disorientated, the ship heads off course, which means the space cruise won’t get back to Earth for three years…

2 IT’S CREATED BY ARMANDO IANNUCCI

The creator of The Thick of It and Veep says Avenue 5 is a series he’s always wanted to make.