We haven't seen much of Peter Kay on TV for a while, but that's set to change as it's just been announced that he's starring in new BBC2 comedy Cradle To Grave.
The eight part series is an adaptation of Going to Sea in a Sieve, the autobiography of broadcaster Danny Baker.
But this isn't the only project that Peter has been working on because he will soon be seen in the BBC1 comedy Car Share. He can also be seen a sketch of his comedy Phoenix Nights for Comic Relief on Red Nose Day, 13 March.
Set in 1974, Cradle to Grave follows the ups and downs of 15-year-old Danny and his 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.
Peter Kay stars as Fred, while the long-suffering Bet is played by former EastEnders star Lucy Speed as his long-suffering wife Bet Baker. Laurie Kynaston, who has appeared in episodes of Doctors and Casualty, plays the teenage Danny, while Alice Sykes (Silent Witness, Mad Dogs and Midsomer Murders) and Frankie Wilson (Grantchester) will star as his siblings Sharon and Michael.
“I am thrilled and honoured to be involved in a project of this scale,” says Peter. “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.”
Meanwhile, Danny Baker has mixed feelings about having his life played out by actors…
“Well, this is weird and there's no way around that,” he says. “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.”
