Martin Freeman is to play a has-been magician in a new Channel 4 comedy.

The Office star is currently working on a pilot of Other People, in which he plays a teenage sensation now languishing in his thirties.

He told Broadcast magazine: ‘It's about this guy who used to do all the big shows like the Royal Variety Performance and Saturday Superstore when he was 18, but is now a bit washed up.

‘It's that feeling that most thirtysomethings have of feeling like they are not quite where they thought they would be.’