Joel Fry leaves Plenbs

Joel Fry is leaving ITV2’s ancient Rome comedy Plebs.

The actor, pictured left, played the central character of Stylax in the first three series - but will not be returning for season four this April, it has been revealed.

He will be replaced  by Jonathan Pointing, who plays a happy-go-lucky builder ‘Jason’. Pointing attracted critical acclaim for his Edinburgh Fringe show Act Natural last year.

The news comes as it has been confirmed that a US remake of Plebs is in the works, being developed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s company Point Grey Pictures.

Tom Rosenthal and Ryan Sampson will be returning to the ITV2 show – whose fourth series was revealed by Chortle in May – as Marcus and Grumio  respectively

Robert Lindsay also joins the cast for episode one, playing as crooked property developer Crassus who helps the character build Rome’s hottest new wine bar, The Crown and Toga.

Other cameos across the season include comedians Aisling Bea, Ellie Taylor, Steve Oram,  Rachel Parris and Daniel Rigby – plus  Ollie Locke from Made In Chelsea.

Returning regulars include Doon Mackichan, Karl Theobald, Tom Basden, (who co-writes the show with Sam Leifer) Tom Davis  and Maureen Lipman.

Made by Rise Films, Plebs has been a success for ITV2, with new episode of the last series typically attracting 600,000 viewers on overnight ratings.

Fry, who starred in the recent BBC One thriller Requiem, also played  Hizdahr zo Loraq in Game of Thrones and the unlikely named PR assistant Karl Marx in W1A.

Published: 6 Mar 2018