Julia Davis is to star in a new gothic comedy she has written in homage to Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca.

The Nighty Night star's new show, Hunderby, will see her play shipwreck survivor Helene who finds herself washed ashore at Hunderby, a small English village full of strange, scary characters, only to be swept off her feet by widowed pastor Edmund.

Helene struggles to settle into married life as she battles to keep her past a secret from her puritanical new husband and fend off his housekeeper, who is obsessed with Edmund's first dead wife.

The seven-part series set in the 1800s, will air on Sky Atlantic HD. It will be produced by Baby Cow Productions' co-founders Henry Normal, Armando Ianucci and Lindsay Hughes and directed by Nighty Night's Tony Dow.

Julia said: "I'm so excited to be making a series for Sky Atlantic HD, a channel that has so many of my favourite shows from around the world."

Lucy Lumsden, Sky's head of comedy, said: "Julia's genius, her sick and twisted sense of humour, has found its natural home and we can't wait to unleash it later this year."

The gothic cast will include "fiends, crones, hunchbacks, wastrels and an adorable puppy called Wilfred".