Sharon Horgan in Dreamland with Lily Allen as her star

The singer takes her first lead television role in Dreamland which will begin shooting in the UK in the coming months.

Created by Horgan and made by her production company Merman, the series is based on a 2017 Sky Arts short, Morgana Robinson’s Summer.

It told the story of a woman attending her heavily pregnant sister’s baby shower on a very hot day.

Horgan, who grew up in Bellewstown, Co Meath, wrote the original short but has convened a writers’ room for the adaptation.

The Catastrophe star first talked about revisiting the story back in 2019, telling Broadcast magazine she planned “to try out an ensemble cast and see if an idea had legs”.

Now, she said: “We’re developing it as a series. That was a lot of effort and not much money for a short-form piece, but it has given us a lot more.”

According to the British Comedy Guide it will be directed by first time TV director and Harlots star Ellie Heydon. The series will be produced by Horgan’s Motherland collaborator Clelia Mountford.

Allen, daughter of the Comic Strip’s Keith Allen, made her acting debut in a 1998 episode of The Yob which starred her father.

She was recently nominated for an Olivier Award for her starring role in her London West End debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story. Allen and Horgan appeared in the film adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s semi-autobiographical novel, How to Build a Girl in 2019.

Horgan, 51, can currently be seen in the Nicolas Cage movie, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

She also recently wrapped filming BBC drama Best Interests alongside Michael Sheen as a married couple contesting a doctors’ decision that their gravely ill daughter should be allowed to die.

Horgan also writes, stars in and produces forthcoming Apple TV+ comedy thriller Bad Sisters with Brian Gleeson, Bono’s daughter Eve Hewson and Anne-Marie Duff.