Brenda Blethyn in new Hamilton & Jenkin ITV sitcom
- Drop The Dead Donkey writers Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin have a new sitcom
- ITV has commissioned six episodes of studio comedy Kate And Kolo for broadcast next year
- The series will star Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola in the title roles
ITV has commissioned a brand new studio sitcom.
To be filmed in front of a live audience early in 2020, Kate And Kolo comes from celebrated writers Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton.
The duo have been writing together since the 1980s, with their most notable credits BBC One's Outnumbered and Channel 4's iconic 90s satire Drop The Dead Donkey.
Set around a traditional seaside café, Kate And Kolo will star Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola in the title roles.
Kate (Blethyn) is a working class woman runs an old-fashioned café in a neglected seaside town, and develops a "strong, if sometimes volatile", friendship with an asylum-seeking African doctor (Akingbola).
Made by Hat Trick, the 6-part series will be filmed and broadcast next year. In accordance with ITV's Comedy 50:50 policy to support female talent, Hamilton and Jenkin will be joined by a trainee writer
Jimmy Mulville, Managing Director at Hat Trick Productions, says: "ITV is the perfect home for Kate And Kolo, written by two of the country's top writers and with two great actors like Brenda and Jimmy. It's a wonderfully funny and sometimes touching comedy about real people coping with life at the sharp end."
Saskia Schuster, ITV's Comedy Controller, adds: "Kate And Kolo will be a new sitcom for ITV filmed in front of a live studio audience to air 2020 on the channel. Brenda and Jimmy head up a fantastic cast and we have 6 brilliantly written scripts."