New comedy about an asylum seeker from the writers of Outnumbered

ITV is returning to the studio sitcom – with a new comedy about an asylum-seeker, starring Brenda Blethyn and Jimmy Akingbola

Kate And Kolo is about a working-class woman who runs an old-fashioned café in a neglected seaside town and who develops a strong, if sometimes volatile, friendship with an asylum-seeking African doctor.

News of the commission comes six months after ITV boss Kevin Lygo said the future of scripted comedy looked ‘quite bleak’ for his flagship channel after axing Birds Of A Feather and Jack Dee’s Bad Move. At the time, he said: ‘ITV was never quite the home of sitcom.’

Kate And Kolo has been written by Outnumbered’s Guy Jenkin and Andy Hamilton, along with a trainee female writer under the Comedy 50:50 scheme which aims to address the gender imbalance in TV writing.

Jimmy Mulville, managing director of programme-makers Hat Trick Productions said ‘ITV is the perfect home for Kate and Kolo, written by two of the country’s top writers and with two great actors like Brenda and Jimmy, it’s a wonderfully funny and sometimes touching comedy about real people coping with life at the sharp end.’

Six half-hour episode have been commissioned by Saskia Schuster, ITV's comedy controller. They will be filmed in front of a studio audience and air next year. 

Holby City star Akingbola was rececently in ITV’s Cheat, while Brenda Blethyn has just been filming a new series of Vera. Further casting will be announced nearer the time.

It is the second British comedy to revolve around an asylum-seeker after Channel 4’s Home, which has just been recommissioned for a second series.

Published: 23 Aug 2019