Spikey pens newspaper sitcom

Phoenix Nights star Dave Spikey is working on a new ITV1 sitcom set in a useless local newspaper.

The comic says he wants to star in his new project - but network chiefs may refuse.

Spikey first had the idea nearly a decade ago, but has only been able to get the project off the ground following his success as compere Jerry St Clair in Phoenix Nights, which he co-wrote with Peter Kay.

He told Teletext: "It's called Dead Man Weds and is set in a quiet local newspaper office where the staff are incompetent and fail to spot the big stories around them.

"The staff spend all day writing horoscopes and other minor things - there's no news.

"It'll be a bit like Casualty in that every week you'll be waiting to see which story they miss due to their incompetence."

"I hope to star but ITV may say no and insist on having Robson Green.

"The name comes from a headline I saw. It was a story about a man who married after being brought back from the dead by paramedics. "

Filming on the show starts next April.

Published: 22 Nov 2003