Cast of sitcom pilot revealed

Nigel Havers has joined the cast of BBC One sitcom pilot Stop/Start.

As Chortle exclusively revealed last Friday, Jack Docherty's Radio 4 series Start/Stop is being adapted for the TV. The show about three fractious marriages features the characters routinely 'pausing' the action to address the audience.

Kerry Godliman will reprise her role from the radio series as Cathy, the wife of Docherty's character Rob. John Thomson will also return as his best friend Evan, in a part that echoes his breakout television role in Cold Feet.

But it's the casting of Havers that is the most striking.

He replaces Charlie Higson as sixty-something David, whose wife Alice – to be played by Waterloo Road’s Laura Aikman – is 30 years his junior. The casting came after Havers impressed Docherty with his roguish portrayal of lothario prog rocker Tony Pebble in Brian Pern: A Life In Rock.

'Charlie just wasn't old enough in the end,’ Docherty says 'We had to get someone who's a generation older than me and John Thomson.'

Also, the writer says, 'if we got to series we can play with Nigel's persona, the smooth guy, the slightly more mainstream guy. Because he's much more of a BBC One name. We wanted somebody from that world.

'You can flip it in the way that Joanna Lumley was reinvented in Absolutely Fabulous, take them to darker places than an ordinary character actor would be able to. It's unexpected.'

Docherty adds that he's pleased to reunite with Godliman and Thomson 'because in a selfish way, that's who I do most of my scenes with. In any pilot, you want to try and hit the ground running and if there's a bit of history, that helps.

'I really love Kerry, her attitude and the way she plays things. She just makes me laugh. And Thomson's great, he's got that everyman appeal.'

The casting of Evan's wife Fiona, is still to be confirmed. Smack The Pony’s Fiona Allen played her on radio.

– by Jay Richardson

Published: 20 Feb 2015