CLOWNING GORY

'IT: Welcome to Derry', a prequel series to the first movie in the Stephen King franchise, masterfully recreates the sense of fetid, rising dread - with gore aplenty

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Tragically, Sky Atlantic’s IT: Welcome to Derry is not a spin-off of the hit Channel 4 sitcom Derry Girls but a prequel to Stephen King’s IT set in a sleepy all-American small town in deepest Maine in 1962. Just how little this enjoyably scary period drama has in common with Lisa McGee's cult series is spelt out in the cold open to the first episode, in which a young boy is kidnapped by a possessed family, including a mother who gives birth to a demonic baby right before his eyes. Toto, we're not in Derry any more. Well, we are - just not that Derry.

King fans will already be familiar with his North American Derry. It served as the backdrop for the original IT and its clown villain, Pennywise. He's back for this show, and is portrayed once again by the gleeful and malevolent Bill Skarsgard. Alas, devotees of terrifying Swedish actors in nightmare jester makeup will have to wait for further into the eight-part series before he makes his appearance (former Hollywood A-lister Madeleine Stowe also has an undisclosed role to be revealed several episodes in).

Pennywise might be a wicked demon with an endless supply of trademark red balloons, but he also enjoys his time off. As