The brainchild of Sandi Toksvig, she thought it was mad that TV companies and theatres were always hunting out the next bright young thing without asking some of Britain’s existing star writers to take a punt on another genre.

So she decided to invite them herself. And it means come July, audiences will see the first plays from Kate Mosse, author of the blockbusters Labyrinth and Sepulchre, and Michael Dobbs, the best-selling author whose books have been repeatedly adapted for TV but who has never written for it.

Toksvig is chuffed to bits that a project she scrawled on a sheet of paper and handed to Sky Arts boss John Cassy only three or four months ago is happening so quickly. Perhaps it really does show that small is beautiful if you want to get things done. Commissioning in bigger channels can take an age.

And the immediacy of the project has prompted swift responses from those asked to take part. Shirley Valentine star Pauline Collins is slotting the first play in before going off to film the next Woody Allen. The team start rehearsing at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, shortly.