Other series 2 guest stars include Emily Atack and Sophie Duker

Former Love Island host Laura Whitmore has landed an acting role – in husband Iain Stirling’s sitcom.

The star is playing a hard-edged TV presenter called Vic in the next series of Buffering when it launches on ITV2 later this month.

Although primarily known as a presenter, the 37-year-old previously starred in the Irish comedy series Finding Joy alongside Aisling Bea and its creator Amy Huberman.

Other guest stars in the second series of the comedy – based on Stirling’s experiences as a twentysomething children’s TV presenter drifting through life – include comics  Emily Atack and Sophie Duker.

Rosa Robson, Jessie Cave, Paul G Raymond  and Janine Harouni all return as the flatmates of Stirling’s character, also called Iain, while Elena Saurel is back as his on-off girlfriend Olivia.

Other guest stars in series two include It’s A Sin’s  David Carlyle, Radio 1 DJ Melvin Odoom, After Life’s Tony Way and veteran actor Gordon Kane – as  well as another Love Island face, former contestant Tyne-Lexy Clarson.

Stirling – who famously provides the voiceover for the ITV2 dating show – created Buffering with stand-up Steve Bugeja, and the first series aired in 2021, attracting around 400,000 viewers per episode.

The writers’ room has been expanded this time and now also includes Christine Robertson, Sally O’Leary and stars Harouni and Cave. 

All episodes will be directed by Sophie King, making her sitcom debut after helming shorts including Rosie Jones’s Channel 4 Comedy Blap Disability Benefits, and produced by Sam Michell – whose credits include both Stewart Lee stand-up specials and Mrs Brown's Boys – for Avalon.

Whitmore quit as the presenter of ITV's Love Island last summer, having taken over from the late Caroline Flack in 2020.

Published: 10 Jan 2023