Will Arnett joins comedy series First Team

Will Arnett is joining the cast of The First Team, the new series from Iain Morris and Damon Beesley and the duo's first as co-writers since their hugely successful Brit comedy The Inbetweeners and its two spin-off films. 

The multi-Emmy winner joins Shaquille Ali-Yebuah, Jack McMullen, Jake Short, Theo Barklem Biggs  and Chris Geere in the BBC comedy.

Emmy winning producer Tom Werner (Roseanne, That ‘70s Show) and Caroline Leddy (Inbetweeners, Derry Girls) are executive producing and Sam Pinnell (Flowers, Derry Girls, Motherland) is producing the series, which has been commissioned by Shane Allen, controller of BBC Comedy, and Patrick Holland, controller of BBC Two. Gregor Sharp is the BBC commissioning editor.

"We're so lucky to be working with such an incredible bunch, some new faces and some we've worked with over the years, all making us laugh enormously,” said Morris and Beesley.

Currently in production, The First Team follows the off-the-pitch misadventures of three young football players (Ali-Yebuah, McMullen and Short) as they find themselves struggling with their mercurial Italian manager Cesare (Paulo Sassenelli), the team’s eccentric American Chairman (Will Arnett), resident hard-man Petey Brooks (Theo Barklem Biggs) and ineffectual coach Chris Booth (Chris Geere).