Kelsey Grammer working on UK restaurant series
- Kelsey Grammer has revealed that he is working on a British show about restaurants that he hopes to pitch to Channel 4
- The Frasier star has moved to Portishead and has been spotted in a number of dining establishments in England over the last week
- He has also elaborated on Nicholas Lyndhurst's role in the imminent Frasier sequel
Kelsey Grammer is working on a British television show with a gastronomic theme, he has revealed, less than a month before he begins rehearsals for the Frasier revival with Nicholas Lyndhurst.
The US actor is moving to Portishead, where his wife Kayte Walsh is from, and has been scouting restaurants around England, he told BBC Radio Bristol this morning.
Grammer, who initially played psychiatrist Frasier Crane on the celebrated sitcom Cheers and won six Emmys for his portrayal of the character on its spin-off Frasier, did not elaborate on whether the British show was a comedy or not.
However, over the course of his career, he has shown an overwhelming preference for narrative projects over non-narrative, suggesting that the restaurant show is likely a comedy or drama. He added that he hoped to make it for Channel 4, the terrestrial home of Cheers and Frasier in this country.
"We're actually in the business of shopping a show, for, we think maybe Channel 4, that's going to check out restaurants and gastronomy in the provinces in England rather than London," he told BBC Radio Bristol presenter James Hanson. "So we're working on that right now."
Grammer, who has his own beer brewing company, has been spotted in a couple of eateries in the past week, including the Vilasa Indian restaurant in Portishead, and said that he'd be "taking up residence [in the Somerset town] for a while" after buying a house there.
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He also disclosed that he's in talks to appear in the UK run of the Finding Neverland musical by Gary Barlow, about Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie, and that the Frasier revival could be set to air this summer.
"The only rumours I've heard are maybe first week of July," Grammer said of its debut on the Paramount+ streaming service in the US. "I would like to see it start a little earlier honestly, because I'm kind of excited about it. But they know what they're doing."
Last week it was reported that Nicholas Lyndhurst will star alongside Grammer in the series, playing Alan Cornwall, Frasier's boozy, British, larger-than-life old college buddy turned university professor.
Grammer took the opportunity to praise the "magnificent" Only Fools And Horses star, having appeared with him in the 2019 English National Opera production of Man of La Mancha, and to elaborate on the new character's relationship with Frasier.
"I just adore him, he's one of the funniest people I've ever worked with," Grammer told Hanson. "I accuse him of being a bit of a sandbagger because you don't see him coming, all of a sudden he's getting all of the laughs. He's a very gifted man ... we start rehearsals in a couple of weeks.
"This real friendship thing is something we've not seen Frasier in. He hoped to be a 'hail fellow well met' figure at the bar in Cheers but never quite got there. So we're discovering a man who's still discovering himself and that's what I find interesting to play anyway."
Grammer has featured in an increasing number of British productions in recent years, including feature films Breaking The Bank, Father Christmas Is Back, and its sequel, Christmas In Paradise.