Community coppers are a laughing stock
Rhys Thomas makes new sitcom
So-called ‘plastic policemen’ are set to become the object of futher ridicule with a new sitcom about a hapless Police Community Support Officer.Rhys Thomas, whose credits include Star Stories and Nathan Barley, has written a pilot episode of Above Their Stations, which will be recorded next month.
Set in Vange, Essex, the comedy is described as ‘big, bold and daft’ and features such characters as Chester, a pensioner PCSO ‘who leaves his colostomy bag in all the wrong places’.
Thomas will star as Perry, a support officer in a forlorn relationship who is constantly put in his place by genuine cop Preston and generally ignored by the chief inspector, who wants a quiet life before he retires.
The cast also includes Denis Lawson, Simon Day, Ashley Madekwe, Dudley Sutton, Tony Way and Luke Gell, who plays Tim in Two Pints of Lager. It will be recorded in front of a live audience at the London Studios on February 7. Click here for tickets.
PCSOs have been criticised as gimmicks who have no real powers and make little effect on crime since they were introduced by David Blunkett when he was Home Secretary in 2002.
After Above Their Stations, Thomas will be working with Paul Whitehouse and Charlie Higson on a TV spin-off from their spoof Radio 4 phone-in, Down The Line, called Bellamy's People.
Published: 27 Jan 2009
