Possible telly transfer for Radio 2 show

Jason Byrne is to pilot a new studio sitcom for BBC One.

He will write and star in Father Figure, which is based on his existing Radio 2 series of the same name.

The pilot TV episode will also star Father Ted’s Pauline McLynn, fellow stand-up Michael Smiley and Dermot Crowley from Bleak House. All were also in the radio version.

In it, Byrne plays Tom, a father of two sons whose good intentions are ruined by bad luck and his extended family.

The show will be recorded in front of a live studio audience and, if picked up, would be destined for a post-watershed slot.

Cheryl Taylor, the BBC’s controller of comedy commissioning, BBC said: ‘Jason Byrne is a bright and bouncy performer and already much loved by comedy enthusiasts everywhere. We're really looking forward to developing the new pilot.’

And Byrne himself added: ‘I am delighted to finally announce that we will be making a pilot of my sitcom Father Figure. It’s been a big dream of mine and I’d never have thought I would get the chance to join the ranks of the television sitcom world.

‘The characters all come from real life and the outrageous situations Tom gets into have, more often than not, actually happened to me. The people in my life will never realise that it’s them I’m writing about, unless my wife and two sons, mother, father and best mate ever watch it.’

The show will be made in-house by the BBC; produced by Julia McKenzie who also made the radio version, with Stephen McCrum, who previously worked on the BBC’s last post-watershed hit Mrs Brown’s Boys, as executive producer.

Here’s a clip from the recording of the Radio 2 show:

Published: 9 Aug 2012