Sian Gibson pilots 1980s-set BBC comedy drama
- Sian Gibson and Conleth Hill star in The Undoing Of Martin Parker for BBC One
- Shot in Stockport, Gibson wrote the comedy with Car Share co-creator Paul Coleman
- Could Peter Kay be involved?
Sian Gibson is piloting a BBC One comedy drama set in the late 1980s, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
With the working title The Undoing Of Martin Parker, Gibson stars and wrote the script with her Car Share co-creator, Paul Coleman.
Co-starring Conleth Hill as the eponymous Parker, the pilot is directed by Andrew Chaplin (Alma's Not Normal, GameFace), and shot in Stockport in October.
One of the first shows from Boffola Pictures (Am I Being Unreasonable?), the company set up by former director and head of BBC comedy, Kate Daughton and Shane Allen respectively, the comedy is a co-production with Lookout Point.
Others cast in the "top secret" pilot include Jason Barnett (Lee And Dean) and George Costigan (So Haunt Me, Rita, Sue And Bob Too!), though details of the plot have yet to emerge.
Recently starring in ITV's crime comedy drama Holding, based on Graham Norton's novel of the same name, Hill has appeared in three television comedies with Gibson to date.
The pair starred in the unbroadcast 2018 black comedy pilot The Group for the BBC, about an Alcoholics Anonymous group, from actor-writer David Ireland (The Young Offenders) and Sister Pictures.
A decade before they appeared in Peter Kay's Channel 4 talent show spoof Britain's Got The Pop Factor And Possibly A New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly On Ice. Gibson was part of the partially wheelchair-bound pop quartet 2 Up 2 Down, while Hill played the mother of Kay's singer Geraldine McQueen.
According to Kay, he and Hill became "very good friends" after he succeeded the future Game Of Thrones star in the role of flamboyant theatre director Roger De Bris in a stage production of The Producers.
The comedian also memorably cast the Northern Irish actor in the guest role of Elsie, John and Kayleigh's co-worker dressed as Smurfette, in a 2017 episode of Car Share. The hit show was ordered by Allen when he was in charge of BBC comedy, and followed his commission of Danny Baker's Cradle To Grave, which also starred Kay.
Here's an out-takes clip from the Car Share episode featuring Hill:
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News in 2018, Gibson confirmed that Car Share would not be returning. But she added: "I was with Peter the other day and we have got something in the pipeline. There are things to think about."
The BBC and Boffola declined to comment on The Undoing Of Martin Parker.