Joanna Lumley to make her directorial debut on Sky A Christmas comedy directed by and starring Joanna Lumley, and an adaptation of literary children's classic Moonfleet were among the commissions announced today at Sky1"s autumn launch. The involvement of Lumley in the Little Crackers strand is the 66-year-old actress's first project for the channel and is considered something of a coup for Sky1 as it aims to go upmarket. "I'd like to work on getting some talent with gravitas," explained Stuart Murphy, the Director of Entertainment Channels. We've had the statesmanlike David Attenborough on Sky3D this year, and Joanna Lumley, I believe, is perceived in a similar way. However, Murphy was keen to point out that Sky1 was already successful in courting an ABC1 (ie more upmarket) customer base and if there were aims in increasing its demographic, it was to appeal to an older audience. As well as snaring Lumley, Murphy announced a new two-part adaptation of J Meade Falkner's haunting smuggling yarn Moonfleet, and an eight-part firefighting drama called The Smoke, from Kudos, the production company behind such terrestrial big-hitters as Spooks and Life On Mars. Sky is currently in a commissioning frenzy - soon Murphy believes that it will be commissioning more comedy content than any other broadcaster, but he also stated that Sky1 will never be in the sort of a position where there will be a new commission on the channel every day of the week. "I don't think that's what our customers are looking for," he said "They value quality over freshness."