Peter Kay to star as Danny Baker's father in Cradle To Grave
Peter Kay is to take on the role of a south Londoner in a new BBC comedy series, it has been confirmed.
Cradle To Grave, based on Danny Baker's best-selling first volume of autobiography, Going To Sea In A Sieve, is currently being filmed in Manchester.
Kay will play the south London-born broadcaster's scheming "real life Del Boy" father, Fred 'Spud' Baker, in the 8-part series. The comic's involvement in the series was first rumoured in September.
Set in 1974, actor Laurie Kynaston has been cast as a 15-year old Danny, whilst British Comedy Guide understands that Raised By Wolves star Alexa Davies is to play his girlfriend.
Former EastEnders and The Bill actor Lucy Speed is playing Danny's mother, Bet; Alice Sykes will feature as Danny's sister, Sharon Baker; and Frankie Wilson is to play brother Michael.
The BBC says of the series: "In Cradle To Grave, 15 year-old Danny Baker is the guide through the ups and downs of life with the family. Fred 'Spud' Baker is a proud south London docker with a penchant for cheeky scheming.
"Wife Bet loves him deeply but longs for the family to go 'straight' and play by the rules. With eldest daughter Sharon's looming wedding, the docks facing closure and Danny's struggles to get closer to the opposite sex, times are tough."
Produced by ITV Studios, the comedy has been written by Baker with Jeff Pope (The Fattest Man In Britain, The Security Men).
Peter Kay says: "I am thrilled and honoured to be involved in a project of this scale. I've never known anything like it before, eight period half hour episodes, shot as feature films and written to an extremely high standard by Danny Baker and Jeff Pope. It's an exciting time."
Danny Baker said on Friday: "Well this is weird and there's no way around that. To see your life played out by actors is always going to be peculiar and also, frankly quite tremendous. I always knew these stories were thunderingly entertaining incidents and that I seemed to be hurtling through a particularly unpredictable, high velocity life peopled by extraordinary characters. Now here they are. This will be a fantastic, rich voyage back to a boisterous often maligned era, true tales told large - a strong family in a magnificent working class community just getting on with life."
Co-writer Jeff Pope adds: "The most exciting part of this series is that it all happened. There is nothing funnier or more dramatic than real life and Danny and his family are a treasure trove of wonderful stories. To see Peter Kay take on a Cockney character in 'Spud', Danny's late father, is terrifically exciting."
Shane Allen, Controller, BBC Comedy Commissioning said: "The talents involved in this series are a powder keg of writing and performing British comedy genius. It's a raucous and rich world of colourful characters and hilarious stories, and like Danny himself it's shot through with a big-hearted ebullience."
Jeff Pope is producing the series, and Sandy Johnson (Benidorm, Stella, Jonathan Creek) is directing. It will be broadcast on BBC Two later in 2015.