Happyish Days for Steve Coogan, Penny Dreadful and Deadwood Diehards

SoHo will resurrect horror sensation Penny Dreadful within two days of its US premiere on Showtime and 12 hours ahead of Sky Atlantic in the UK.

Season two of the origins mash-up of some of literature’s most famous frighteners will screen here 8.30 Tuesdays from May 5.

According to the publicity, “Vanessa Ives and Ethan Chandler are forming a deeper bond as the group, including Sir Malcolm, Dr Frankenstein, and Sembene, unite to banish the evil forces that threaten to destroy them.

“Meanwhile, Dorian Gray, the Creature and Brona are all waging battles of their own, while Evelyn Poole (aka Madame Kali), the seductive spiritualist, returns to pose a unique threat to the group.”

Also new next month is the Steve Coogan comedy, Happyish. It starts April 26 on Showtime and will screen 9.30 Thursdays from May 14 on SoHo.

It’s billed as “a comedic, soul-searching examination of our pursuit of happiness and why it continues to be so elusive”.

Coogan plays a 44 year-old whose world is turned upside down when his 25 year-old “wunderkind” boss arrives. Is he in need of a “rebranding,” as his mentor insists, or does he just have a “low joy ceiling,” as his corporate head-hunter suggests?

Kathryn Hahn (Parks and Recreation), Ellen Barkin, Carrie Preston (True Blood, The Good Wife) and Bradley Whitford (Transparent, Studio 60 on Sunset Strip) co-star.

Still no word on when SoHo will premiere season four of another signature Showtime comedy, Episodes.

But it does have a consolation prize of sorts for Timothy Olyphant fans now that Justified is about to stroll off into the sunset: it will screen from the beginning the western series in which he made his mark, Deadwood (9.30 Wednesdays, from May 20).

This will be the first time the series has aired here in HD.

May’s other highlight on SoHo is the HBO movie Bessie, which stars Queen Latifah as the “Empress of the Blues,” Bessie Smith.

It will screen on May 30, two weeks after its US premiere.