Back at the Beeb
New sitcom for The Office's Freeman
Martin Freeman is to star in his first BBC comedy since The Office.
He is to play Ed, the dark sheep of the family, in the BBC2 sitcom The Robinsons.
Freeman, who played nice guy Tim in Ricky Gervais's coemdy, recently quit ITV1’s Simon Nye-written sitcom Hardware saying he wanted more serious roles.
In the new show he plays a recently divorced man living in a housing association flat in Bermondsey, south London.
Ed is an embarrassment to his well-to-do family, who live in suburban Wimbledon.
As he struggles to find a new girlfriend and escape from his boring job, he ends up imagining the exploits of previous generations of Robinsons in brief fantasy sequences – and pondering how he doesn’t measure up to them.
Hugh Bonneville plays Ed's older brother George, Sean Bean’s ex-wife Abigail Cruttenden plays his younger sister Vicky and Anna Masse his mother, Pam.
The six-part half-hour sitcom is due to go into production in November for broadcast next year.Published: 23 Sep 2004
