Cast announced for Gold's new sitcom

Robert Lindsay and Maureen Lipman are to star in Gold’s new sitcom set in an antiques shop, Bull.

The My Family star will play Rupert Bull, the store owner, in the three-part series.

Also announced in the cast today are Kevin Eldon, stand-ups Naz Osmanoglu and Toby Williams (known on the circuit for his alter-ego George Ryegold) and Claudia Jessie.

Matt Lucas, whose company John Stanley Productions is making the show, is also set to appear in a guest starring role.

It is written by comedian John-Luke Roberts and Gareth Gwynn, whose credits include The News Quiz, and based on their 2010 Radio 4 comedy Antiquity, which starred Blackadder actor Tim McInnerny.

Production on the series, which is due to air late in 2015, has now started.

Commissioning editor Simon Lupton said: ‘What could possibly go wrong in a quintessentially English antiques shop managed by an energetic eccentric and staffed by a bizarre bunch of characters? The answer is quite a lot – and that is the premise for this fast-paced, contemporary sitcom, written with verve by a new writing partnership.

‘Robert Lindsay is one of our most versatile and funny actors, perfect to lead this cast as the loveable but completely hopeless Bull We think the Gold audience will fall in love with all these charming, disparate characters, who really are the proverbial bulls in a china shop.’

Bull is one of three, three-part comedy series commissioned by Gold as they push into scripted comedy.

The others are Marley’s Ghosts starring Sarah Alexander as a woman who can talk to the dead – including her husband played by John Hannah, and royal comedy Henry IX, written by veteran comedy duo Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.

Further Gold commissions are expected to be announced soon.

Published: 23 Jul 2015