...about a teenager who goes on Britain's Got Talent

Jack Carroll is set to star in his own semi-autobiographical Radio 4 sitcom.

The Britain's Got Talent comic recorded a pilot episode of Careless, a semi-improvised comedy with stand-ups Diane Morgan and Peter Slater last week

Like Carroll, his character Jack suffers from cerebral palsy – and appeared on Britain’s Got Talent. But in the show, his mother grew tired of him after his TV success and employed a carer to look after him.

'It's an odd couple relationship' says producer-director Justine Potter. 'Both of them sabotage each other's lives and cause each other chaos but at the heart of it, they adore each other and couldn't be without each other really.'

There are plans for six half-hour episodes but Potter says 'we want to do a single first, rather than crack on with the series straight off because there will be quite a lot of improvisation around the script, we plan to play around with it'.

The pilot's cast also includes Shameless’s Jack Deam and newcomer Liam Bairstow, who has Down's Syndrome.

Carroll recently starred in the fourth series of Sky 1's Trollied and David Walliams' BBC One comedy Big School, but this is his first lead role.

Made by Savvy Productions, Careless is written by Lunch Monkeys creator David Isaac, who's also worked on Not Going Out and My Family, with Carroll and Jason Wingard.

The same team previously collaborated on the feature-turned-short film Going To Mecca, which starred Carroll and Aqib Khan as half brothers who go to Blackpool to scatter the ashes of the father who raised them both.

'David had known Jack for a while. And after Going to Mecca we just felt there was something in the dynamic there, so we cooked up something we thought would work for Radio 4,' Potter says.

- by Jay Richardson

Published: 4 Feb 2015