Russia-Ukraine crisis: Volodymyr Zelensky’s comedy series gets new life on Channel 4, other global networks

Los Angeles: With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky emerging as a global hero, global rights management company Eccho Rights has licensed 'Servant of the People', the 2016 television series created by and starring him. 'Variety' reports that the rights have been sold to Channel 4 in the U.K., MBC in the Middle East, ANT 1 in Greece and PRO TV in Romania.

Eccho Rights managing director Fredrik af Malmborg shared this news and said his company stood "in solidarity with our friends and partners in Ukraine". He added: "It is our position that the best support the global television industry can offer to Ukraine today is to share this story."

Three seasons of the political comedy series, presented by Zelensky's production house Kvartal 95, were aired on the Ukrainian 1+1 channel and was adapted into a feature film after its successful first season in 2016. The Belarusian TV channel, Belarus-1, has been airing it since November 2019.

Nicola Soderlund, managing partner at Eccho, said: "The series is a comedy but also an important document of where Zelensky comes from. His fictional president is a normal man, who grows into his role as a heroic and adored leader."

Soderlund added: "While the real world scenario facing Zelensky and the Ukrainian people is far more grim and appalling than the comedy of the series, there are obvious parallels with the real world situation, and 'Servant of the People' is a fascinating, important and historic piece of television."

In a classic case of fiction prefacing reality, Zelensky plays the lead character, Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko, an absent-minded high school history teacher who is elected President of Ukraine after his profane rant about corruption in the country is recorded by one of his students, who uploads the footage to YouTube and turns him into an Internet sensation.

Holoborodko's students launch a crowdfunding campaign for his candidacy in Ukraine's presidential race against his wishes, eventually propelling him to political victory.