... as a love interest in Pappy's sitcom

Katherine Ryan has joined the second series of Badults, to inject 'more sexual tension' into the BBC Three sitcom.

The Canadian stand-up plays Matthew Crosby's office co-worker Lucy and the object of his deluded affections.

Currently filming six new 30-minute episodes of their show, sketch trio Pappy's said: 'We've been fans of Katherine's comedy for ages but rather than go up and talk to her - girls intimidate us - we decided to cast her in our TV show.

'Lucy and Matthew have a sort-of "will they? won't they?" relationship. Matthew thinks they will. Lucy knows they won't. It's like Ross and Rachel if Rachel hated Ross and Ross was weirdly turned-on by that.'

Ryan declared herself 'thrilled' to be joining Crosby, Tom Parry and Ben Clark in the series. She said: 'When my regular gig as a stand-up comedian doesn't go my way, I only humiliate myself, whereas now I have an entire team to potentially let down. I'm really looking forward to it.

'Although, it's become pretty clear that none of them fancies me. Not even the ugly one.'

Given Badults' modestly-sized cast, her three episode story arc is arguably Ryan's highest profile acting role to date, though she previously appeared as a Canadian 'restructuring guru' in Channel 4's semi-improvised college sitcom Campus and has featured in Count Arthur Strong and Episodes.

She reached the final of last year's Let's Dance For Comic Relief, performing Starships by Nicki Minaj. And she has appeared on Live At The Apollo, QI, Have I Got News For You and Mock The Week, receiving death threats after an episode in June when a joke in which she mentioned Filipinos was interpreted as racist.

Jack Docherty – who is currently shooting BBC Scotland's semi-improvised cop show spoof Scot Squad around Glasgow, – is returning to Badults as Matthew's boss, Carabine.

But Emer Kenny will not be reprising her role as Matthew's sister Rachel. Some familiar comedy faces who are appearing include Mike Wozniak, Gemma Whelan, David Reed and Docherty's Absolutely castmate Moray Hunter.

-by Jay Richardson

Published: 5 Feb 2014