Playing a love-struck teacher

David Walliams is to star in a new BBC One sitcom set it an urban secondary school.

The Little Britain star created the six-part series, provisionally titled Autumn Leaves, which he co-wrote with established sketch writers The Dawson Brothers.

Walliams said: ‘The Dawson Brothers are brilliant. I met them when they wrote sketches for The One Ronnie' and I have loved collaborating with them. The read-through of the first episode attracted a stellar cast, and I hope the series will too.’

The BBC describes the show as ‘Grange Hill meets Remains Of The Day’ – and will be the second BBC sitcom set in a school, following Jack Whitehall’s Bad Education on BBC Three.

Walliams plays a chemistry teacher who’s hopelessly in love with the school’s new French teacher, who in turn is being chased by a lothario gym teacher.

The show will be made in-house by the BBC, and was announced by BBC One controller Danny Cohen at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

He also confirmed the Ben Elton sitcom Slings And Arrows – set in a council health and safety department – as Chortle reported last month. It will star David Haig – who appeared in Elton’s Nineties sitcom The Thin Blue Line – as the boss, an ‘exasperated everyman’ called Gerald.

Cohen said: ‘Two masters of British comedy have created brand new si-coms especially for BBC One, namely Ben Elton with Slings And Arrows and David Walliams with Autumn Leaves. Comedy is incredibly important to BBC One and it’s been brilliant to see such great talent being so passionate about working on the nation’s favourite channel.’

Elton said: ‘All my happiest television memories concern BBC comedy and in particular BBC sitcoms. It's an honour and a privilege to get the chance to be a part of that tradition again and I'm as excited today as I was when the Young Ones was commissioned 30 years ago.’

Published: 24 Aug 2012