Pilot for Radio 4

David Mitchell is to star in the new comedy Frankie Boyle is writing for Radio 4.

The Peep Show star takes the lead in the pilot episode of the sitcom Blocked, which Boyle co-wrote with fellow Scottish stand-up Steven Dick.

However, lest the controversial comic be too much for Radio 4 listeners, the BBC stresses: 'Frankie Boyle is not in this sitcom.'

Instead Mitchell plays the lead role of Felix, a once-successful writer now suffering nihilistic despair.Watson and Oliver's Lorna Watson plays his wife Nettie, with whom he runs a small theatre on the south coast.

Stand-up and Hebburn star Chris Ramsey also has a role, as the boyfriend of the couple's daughter, played by Poppy Rush, who was last seen on Inside No 9.

Described as 'a traditional sitcom with an edge', the pilot episode is being recorded in the BBC Radio Theatre in Central London on May 27. Click here for free audience tickets.

The recording follows a read-through at the Stand comedy club in Glasgow last month at which Burnistoun's Robert Florence and Louise Stewart and stand-ups Chris Forbes and Eleanor Morton took the lead roles.

Published: 12 May 2014