In new ITV drama that also stars comic Lloyd Griffith as Benny from Crossroads

Mark Gatiss is to play veteran comedian and game-show host Larry Grayson in a new ITV drama.

The League of Gentlemen star takes the role in Nolly, which stars Helena Bonham Carter as Noele Gordon, the queen of the long-running low-rent soap opera Crossroads.

Gordon shared a close and enduring friendship with Grayson – even asking him to marry her when she appeared on This Is Your Life, despite him being clearly gay. 

Gatiss will be joined in the cast by stand-up Lloyd Griffith, below, as Paul Henry, the actor who played Benny, the simple-minded handyman at the motel where the series was set. 

The three-part series has been written by Doctor Who and It’s A Sin’s Russell T Davies and will air over three episodes later this year.

Noele Gordon – Nolly to her friends – played widow Meg Richardson in the soap since it began in 1964. But in 1981, at the height of the show’s success, she was axed without ceremony, without warning and with no explanation.

She had a reputation for being tough, haughty and imperious, grandly sweeping into rehearsals from her Rolls-Royce, but also a hard-working actress who was fiercely loyal and loved by cast and crew.

According to ITV the new series ‘is a bold exploration of how the establishment turns on women who refuse to play by the rules, the women it cannot understand and the women it fears. And it is a love letter to a legend of television, and to the madcap soap she starred in.’

Other members of the cast have also just been announced, including Augustus Prew, who plays Tony Adams, Nolly’s Crossroads co-star, friend and occasional chauffeur; and Con O’Neill,  who plays Crossroads producer Jack Barton.

Griffith previously played an estate agent in Davies’s acclaimed Channel 4 seris It’s A Sin, and has had a recurring role in Ted Lasso as a sports journalist, also called Lloyd.

Here’s Larry Grayson talking about Noele Gordon: 

Published: 3 Jun 2022