Lee Kyle piloting Steve! sitcom with Game Of Thrones star Ben Crompton
Stand-up Lee Kyle is piloting a sitcom, Steve!, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
Starring Ideal and Game Of Thrones star Ben Crompton in the title role alongside comedian Sammy Dobson (Boy Meets Girl), the meta-comedy's boy-meets-girl plot is undermined by its over-engaged narrator, voiced by writer and creator Kyle.
A live script read is taking place on Zoom on February 13th for the six episode comedy, which also features comics Cal Halbert and Kelly Edgar, plus actor Kelly Rickard, who's about to begin working with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Steve! focuses on two new couples, one of which "happens through the natural course of the script, the other happens because the narrator decides it should, even though they're massively unsuitable" Kyle told BCG.
"He's excited and sort of ruins it as it goes on. Over the course of the episodes, he's having a bit of a breakdown. It's very much his baby but he's out of his depth and making it worse for himself as it goes on.
"There are episodes where he's kind of the main focus but others where the actors take a stand and decide they won't make it if I don't shut up."
Produced by North-East comedy collective Felt Nowt, Steve! is Kyle's debut sitcom, following a couple of alternative pantomimes he's written with Dobson, featuring the likes of Lost Voice Guy and The Delightful Sausage's Amy Gledhill.
Yet to confirm whether Steve! will be an audio or live stage comedy, Kyle may film it. But he thinks that he's unlikely to aim the project at television, citing the example of a producer who wanted him to make it more like Steven Moffat's early 2000s sitcom Coupling.
"I know my strengths and weaknesses as a writer" he says. "And if I tried to write Coupling, it would just be a bad version of Coupling.
"This is a show that's theoretically trying to be mainstream but isn't, that's partly about it struggling to retain an audience and trying to make it cheaper. Which should help us to make it relatively easily"
Tickets for Steve! are available via feltnowt.co.uk