Controversial, misunderstood and elusive, Chris Morris is undoubtedly one of the sharpest satirists working in British TV, so news that funding for his first feature film, Four Lions, has been granted is exciting news indeed. Morris’ past creations are amongst the most vital TV shows of the past 20 years: Brass Eye has yet to be bettered as a current affairs satire and the much underrated Jam must still be one of the most gloriously dark sketch shows ever to grace TV. The former is still astonishingly relevant and, more importantly, funny over a decade on. Sure, the celebrity wind-ups have now been done to death, but rarely have the famous been ridiculed so mercilessly for their ignorance, self-importance and plain stupidity. Brass Eye lampooned the British media’s unqualified hysteria like no other, but since tackling the superb ‘Pedophile Special’ in 2001, Morris hasn’t quite hit the mark with subsequent projects. However, his latest gig directing and writing a fictional story exposing the life of the contemporary British jihad promises to recapture those fearlessly harsh satirical barbs that made his name in the 1990s.

Depressingly but unsurprisingly refused funding by the BBC, Four Lions has secured the cash from FilmFour for production this summer under Warp Films, with a UK cinema release towards the end of the year. More good news is that Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bains, writers of Channel 4’s Peep Show, have contributed to the script. No doubt the Daily Mail’s ilk will complain, but then as with those who chided Brass Eye as tasteless and offensive, they’ll almost certainly miss the point entirely.