Joanna Page hits jackpot in new comedy-drama

Joanna Page is to star in a new TV series about a supermarket worker who strikes it lucky on the Lottery. The Gavin and Stacey star will play Leanne, a single mum who shares her win with colleagues facing redundancy in The Syndicate. The series, to be screened on BBC One next year, has been written by Fat Friends creator Kay Mellor and also stars Timothy Spall as supermarket manager Bob, whose new-found wealth can't mask his health problems. Kay said: "I was inspired to write it after a friend of mine was told she was losing her job. With a mortgage to pay and outstanding debts her only hope was to win the Lottery. "It made me think how many people were thinking the same. As cuts hit hard we're left with only a dream of six numbered balls deciding our fate - what strange times we are living in! It's both funny and tragic; a perfect recipe for great drama." Ben Stephenson, BBC controller of drama commissioning, added: "Kay Mellor effortlessly creates such wonderfully rich characters and the fine cast will bring that warmth and heart to the screen." Filming begins on location in Leeds this week.

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Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix.

An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.