Filming is underway on Showmax’s first travel show Trippin’ with Skhumba. In each 30-minute episode, the Comic’s Choice Comic of the Year 2017 will get down and dirty with a fellow South African comedian in their hometown, exploring places that won’t make any tourism brochures and stories that would be edited out of any authorised biographies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81kUFEKSamc

Skhumba mentions that as much as they love South African comedians, they are only exposed to what they do on stage as opposed to their backgrounds, hence on Trippin’ with Skhumba, he wanted to dig deeper into their lives and where they come from – far more than what he could ever get out of them by doing a normal interview, like on his radio show on Kaya FM.

The first season’s guests are Celeste Ntuli, who was the most nominated comedian with Skhumba, going into the 2018 Comic’s Choice Awards; the last three Native Tongue winners, Siya Seya, Salesman and Mashabela Galane; 2016 Comic of the Year winner Tumi Morake and 2015 Intermediate winner Schalk Bezuidenhout.

Director Vincent Moloi, who helmed the 2018 Best Drama SAFTA winner Tjovitjo and also took home Best Documentary Director last year for Skulls of My People, says Trippin’ with Skhumba is flipping funny – it’s real. It represents to him, the ultimate exploration of South Africa’s humour in a very honest and truthful way. It has an uncompromisingly authentic texture. Be ready to laugh at our misfortunes and our greatness…

The first season will end with an hour-long stand-up special, featuring Skhumba and his guests, as well as one new comedian from each hometown visited.

Trippin’ with Skhumba will be the third Showmax original, building on the success of Tali’s Wedding Diary in 2017 and 2019’s The Girl from St Agnes, which both set the record for the most first-day unique views of any show on the platform.

Showmax is rapidly becoming the home of South African comedy, with the roasts of AKA, coming soon, Somizi and Kenny Kunene; Trevor Noah Presents NationWild; and stand-up specials from the likes of Barry Hilton and David Kau.

Trippin’ with Skhumba is being produced for Showmax, by Diprente, which is co-owned by 2018 Comic’ Pen winner Kagiso Lediga and is also producing Netflix’s first original African series, Queen Sono.

Trippin’ with Skhumba will be coming first and only to Showmax from 28 February 2019, with new episodes every Thursday.

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The Girl From St Agnes, Showmax’s first original drama, wrapped-up in November 2018 after filming in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands and in Johannesburg. The eight-part whodunnit will premiere on Showmax on 31 January 2019.

The first Showmax Original, last year’s light-hearted comedy Tali’s Wedding Diary, had the most successful launch day of any series on Showmax ever, and according to Candice Fangueiro, Showmax’s head of content, this first original production for Showmax in the Drama genre, is a complete change of direction. She said that The Girl From St Agnes is a dark murder mystery that will keep viewers guessing, tapping into the current conversations in South Africa about #metoo and teen sexuality.”

At St Agnes, a prestigious all-girls boarding school in the Midlands, a popular and beautiful student is found dead at the base of the old mill. Fearful of the scandal it might cause, the school is quick to declare the death of Lexi Summerveld a tragic accident.

But drama teacher Kate Ballard doesn’t believe it. On the night of her death, an upset Lexi had been trying to contact her, and Kate had ignored her. Now wracked with guilt, Kate attempts to piece together the terrible truth.

The more she investigates, the more Kate realises that she didn’t know Lexi or the school at all. Behind the imposing walls of St Agnes, Lexi’s killer won’t be the only person exposed…

Newcomer Jane De Wet was handpicked to play Lexi by legendary South African casting director Moonyeenn Lee of Tsotsi, who’s been nominated for two Emmy Awards in the last three years, for The Looming Tower and Roots.

Kate is played by Nina Milner, who modelled for Vogue Germany and at Paris Fashion Week last year and most recently starred in Troy: Fall Of A City as Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons.

Jane and Nina are joined by an impressive supporting cast that includes internationally recognised South African talent like Robert Hobbs, Tyrone Keogh, Tessa Jubber, Karl Thaning, and Shamilla Miller, opposite local favourites like Celeste Khumalo, Richard Lukunku, Zakeeya Patel, Graham Hopkins and three-time SAFTA winner Jerry Mofokeng, not to mention hot new talent like Paige Bonnin and Tristan de Beer.

The Girl From St Agnes is being produced by Quizzical Pictures, winners of the SAFTA for Best Drama for six of the last eight years, as well as a Peabody. Producer Harriet Gavshon, Quizzical Pictures’ managing director, is drawing on her own private school experiences, which sparked the original idea for the show.

Catharine Cooke, who won this year’s Best Director in a TV Drama SAFTA for iNumber Number, co-directed the shoot with Cindy Lee, a commercials director helming her first drama series, having previously worked as the social media director on the Emmy-winning Black Mirror. Double SAFTA winner Gillian Breslin (Umlilo; 4Play: Sex Tips For Girls) is head writer. This makes Girl From St Agnes a rare TV series commissioned, produced, written and directed by women.

Binge all eight episodes first and only on Showmax from 31 January 2019.

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