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‘Realistic Last of the Summer Wine’ in pipeline for BBC1

Published Wednesday 10 December 2008 at 12:50 by Matthew Hemley

Exclusive: Rab C Nesbitt production company The Comedy Unit is making a new sitcom for BBC1 about senior citizens.

Called Working Class, the comedy is being penned by Donald McLeary, the writer and star of BBC Radio 4’s Fags, Mags and Bags, which last month scooped the prize for Best Radio Comedy at the 2008 Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards. McLeary told The Stage his sitcom had been inspired by watching his parents, who are both in their sixties.

“I was looking at my parents, seeing what their life is like and how this is not addressed on TV in any way,” he said. “The show will be a kind of a realistic take on Last of the Summer Wine. If Last of the Summer Wine is the Spielberg view of old people, then Working Class is the Ken Loach/Mike Leigh approach.”

He added: “It is probably a more realistic view than Fags, Mags and Bags, which has quite an optimistic view of the world.”

A script for the series has been commissioned by the BBC, but McLeary said no further work could be done until the show’s leading role has been cast. He added that the show is aimed at a pre-watershed audience, claiming there are enough series that cater for non-family audiences.

“I like an edgy show as much as the next person, but there are a lot of people doing really good stuff that is edgy, so it doesn’t seem like something we need much more of,” he explained.

A spokesman for the BBC confirmed the project was in development, but could not reveal further information.

McLeary is set to appear in a BBC Radio 3 drama as part of the Corporation’s cross-station sci-fi season next year. He will feature in Salmonella Men on Planet Porno, an adaptation of a story by Japanese author Yasutaka Tsutsui.

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