Vera star to play working-class woman who runs an old fashioned seaside cafe
Vera actress Brenda Blethyn is to star in a new ITV comedy, Kate and Kolo, which has been penned by the creators of Outnumbered and Drop the Dead Donkey.
The Oscar-nominated star, recently seen as DCI Vera Stanhope in the hit crime drama, will take the title role of Kate in the six-part studio sitcom opposite theatre and film actor Jimmy Akingbola.
The action centres around Kate, a working-class woman who runs an old-fashioned cafe in a neglected seaside town.
She soon develops a strong, if sometimes up and down friendship with Kolo (Jimmy Akingbola), an asylum-seeking African doctor.
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Kate and Kolo has been written by Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, who famously teamed up to create both family sitcom Outnumbered, starring Hugh Dennis and Claire Skinner, and anarchic 1990s comedy Drop the Dead Donkey, which revolved around a busy newsroom.
Jimmy Mulville, Managing Director at Hat Trick Productions, which is making Kate and Kolo, said: “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.”
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Kate and Kolo has been ordered for ITV by Saskia Schuster, ITV's Comedy Controller.
“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 six brilliantly written scripts," said Saskia.
Kate and Kolo, starring Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola, will air on ITV next year.
Main Brenda Blethyn picture: Mike Marsland
