Vegas films BBC One pilot

Johnny Vegas is to play a fireman in a new sitcom currently being made for BBC One.

Fire Station is one of the six comedy pilots ordered by the channel earlier this year – including The Omid Djalili Show, which was today commissioned for a full series.

Vegas was last week shooting scenes for the show, which was written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye, at real fire stations in Essex.

The cast also includes Paterson Joseph, who played Lyndon in Green Wing and Alan Johnson in Peep Show; John Henshaw, who has appeared in The Royale Family; Cristian Solimeno who played Jason Turner in Footballers’ Wives; and Tameka Empson, from 3 Non Blondes.

Mike Jones, a fire brigade sub-officer based at Canvey, said that based on what he’d seen being filmed, the show ‘was all slapstick, funny stuff’.

He told the local Echo newspaper: ‘It's about a fire station that has lots of old firefighters. Then they get a new young man in and the show follows what happens next.

‘It was a great experience for us to see how a programme is put together. Johnny Vegas was very chatty and spent a long time looking around our appliances.’

After filming at Canvey, the cast and crew moved on to Leigh to use the station's pole – as Canvey fire station doesn't have one

Studio scenes for the pilot – which is being made by independent production house Talkback Thames – were recorded in London’s TV Centre last night.

Once the footage is edited together, the BBC will be able to decide whether to commission a full series or not.

Published: 17 Jul 2006