American actor Rob Lowe will be starring in a new Sky1 comedy drama called Apocalypse Slough, a mini series that will navigate through the lives of completely different individuals who were forced to get along after they were thrust into a compromising situation.

Lowe, of West Wing fame, will play a rebellious former Catholic priest Father Jude in the 10-part series, which will air in the US on NBC, reports The Guardian.

His co-stars include Game of Thrones' Joel Fry and Paterson Joseph from Peep Show. It will also star Jenna Fischer from the US version of The Office, Megan Mullally from Will and Grace, Mathew Baynton from The Wrong Mans, and Pauline Quirke from Birds of a Feather.

In the show, the unlikely group will take refuge in a bunker hidden deep in the Berkshire town of Slough after an eight-mile wide comet threatens to hit earth.

Aside from Father Jude, the other characters will be a cyber terrorist who is afraid of dirt, a five-star American general, a somewhat unhinged white supremacist, and a seemingly normal bank manager.

Lowe is pretty excited about playing his new character. 

"I've always been a fan of the kind of smart, ambitious and challenging film-making that comes from Sky and Working Title. This script and my character in particular, blew me away," he said, according to The Guardian.

Sky1 director Adam MacDonald said that the new series Apocalypse Slough will be a world-class and high-concept drama for Sky1. "The show has bundles of energy, vibrancy and laughter, as well as delivering an exuberant heart-warming story on an epic scale," he said.

Apocalypse Slough was created by Iain Hollands, who also wrote E4's comedy drama Beaver Falls and is made by Working Title with Bigballs Films in a co-commission by Sky and NBC.

Other Sky1 productions this year will include Critical from Line of Duty creator Jed Mercurio and a new adaptation of Fungus the Bogeyman.