When he’s not heroically helping to defend mutant kind in the** X-Men** films or stalking the Broadway stage, we all know that Patrick Stewart can be a funny man. His Twitter feed is constant evidence of that, and he’s often given extremely silly things to say as CIA director Avery Bullock on Seth MacFarlane’s American Dad. So we’re happy to see him given an outlet for his comic chops on live-action TV again, as US network Starz has ordered two seasons of Blunt Talk{
The show, which comes from MacFarlane and Bored To Death creator Jonathan Ames, will shoot two seasons of 10 episodes each for its initial order. Stewart, who is also on board as a producer, will be Walter Blunt, a Piers Morgan-alike British blowhard who scores a job on an American cable news network. Intent on delivering his wisdom and guidance on how our colonial cousins should think and live, he’s endlessly besieged by network executives, his dysfunctional staff and various other characters. His one supporter is the alcoholic manservant he had shipped over from the UK.
"In the character of Walter Blunt, Seth, Jonathan and Patrick have found the alchemy that makes a borderline alcoholic, mad-genius-Brit the man you want fighting in America’s corner. Seth and Jonathan have struck the right balance between biting wit and outright absurdity in building this world, and we cannot wait for Patrick to breathe life into Walter," Starz CEO Chris Albrecht said in a statement picked up by The Hollywood Reporter.
With Stewart aboard, we can but hope it’s a better result than MacFarlane’s last attempt at non-animated TV comedy, Dads. Now let’s all celebrate by watching this.